Wyrm Lord of Brockton Bay
by vandalvagabond
Summary: Fighting the Simurgh, almost leaving Earth's atmosphere, going through atmospheric re-entry... those are all just part of my daily life.
1. Chapter 1

Commissioned by DefineitlyNotDio.

Written by Vandalvagabond

-VB-

Part 1

Feb 24, 2011

It's only been an hour since the winged Endbringer had descended upon Canberra, but the city looked like a battlefield. The Simurgh had deployed its favorite tactic: breaking the buildings in its immediate area and turning those fallen architecture into telekinetic debris shield.

Legend dove down, blasting nearly at lightspeed to dodge seven consecutive attacks thrown at him with broken buildings and debris ranging from a supersonic couch to a pinwheeling tower. He cleared the attacks, and stopped only to enter his Breaker form again as he found a literal wall flying at him. The wall clipped his Breaker form, which did nothing, and he finally got a clear line of sight to the Simurgh.

The thing about the Simurgh's debris shield was that it was an omnidirectional telekinetically orbiting debris in a near perfect shape of a sphere. Most of these were flying at speeds just half the speed of sound, and the Simurgh could easily accelerate any of those debris from zero to a hundred without even turning to look.

Getting a line of sight to her?

It meant nothing good.

And just as he thought this, he screamed out in pain when something slammed into his back and hurled him towards the Simurgh. Without even thinking about it, he entered his Breaker state again and flew high up into the air, blasting away from the Simurgh.

He came to a skidding stop and blinked.

Because he was staring at the Simurgh, yes, but he was also staring at something that he hadn't noticed in the battlefield.

There was a drag-

"[Incoming Unknown. Codename Wyrm, Appearance: 40 meter dragon.]"

The dragon abruptly stopped, as if it was aware of being spotted, and raised its body up.

It had a long body twice the thickness of a freight truck. It crawled on its eight legs, evenly spaced out across its body, and

'It's Kyushu all over again,' Legend thought as he stared at the giant creature that snaked out of nowhere into the battlefield, roaring loud enough to shake the world.

The Simurgh whirled around and looked surprised by the dragon's appearance.

"[I need Thinkers on Wyrm, stat!]" Alexandria shouted from his wristband.

"[This is Magarav, Thinker of Protectorate Seattle! Wyrm is about to engage the Simurgh!]"

"[Don't go near Wyrm and Simurgh-!]!"

The Simurgh pulled up the entire of its telekinetic debris shield, and flung it last bullets at Wyrm. With the debris field open, Legend fired down upon the Simurgh.

-VB-

Alexandria dove in and smashed her fist into the Simurgh, pushing the False Angel back. Simugh's face cracked from her assault, but the Simurgh did not retaliate. She kept her "eyes" glued onto the newcomer, Wyrm. Alexandria flew back for a second, her battleborn instinct screaming that something was coming but also to prepare for another assault.

The sound of rubble and debris breaking and scattering was the first sign.

The slight turn of her head gave her the overwhelming quick blur of gold growing ever so larger was the second sign.

The third and final sign that her instinct, despite how little she used it outside of battle, was right in steering her away.

Because that giant, overwhelmingly fast, and very loud streak of gold slammed into the Simurgh like a missile.

What happened occurred often in parahuman cape fights. The larger and seemingly more powerful cape - Wyrm - crashed into the seemingly weaker and fragile looking cape - Simurgh - and the smaller cape withstands the attack as if it was nothing.

The whole mass of the dragon, which was much larger and longer than the Simurgh, comically piled up vertically midair.

Then what happened caught her off-guard.

The Simurgh blasted Wyrm away, hurling it away like a giant ball of ropes. That's not what caught Alexandria off-guard.

What caught her off-guard was the Wyrm righting itself mid-air, hovering in place for a single second, before numerous bright pinpoint lights of varying colors began to appear with it at the center. Then they fired.

It was like watching Legend's lasers multiplied by God knows how many more. It was a circular curtain of bullets blasting towards the Simurgh, a few spinning towards the Endbringer, others shooting straight, and some zapping across the space like lightning.

For the first time since she appeared, the Simurgh dodged instead of taking hits or shielding herself. The Simurgh danced between the attacks, flying faster than a fighter jet, turning on a dime repeatedly in her attempt to lose the "bullets," and yet this still wasn't enough.

Many of the "bullets" fired by Wyrm curved with her, chasing her like guided missiles even as some of them exploded mid-chase. It was a light show of explosions and eruptions of red, greens, blues, and whites. Sometimes they overlapped to form purple and even black, and smoke rose up where a few of the "bullets" fell off-course and landed on the ground to explode with catastrophic results.

The Simurgh flew, zipping across the skies, skirting close to the ground, and even attempting to guide Wyrm's very missiles to it.

The Wyrm would have none of it.

Or rather, it saw through the Endbringer's ploy and let her approach it. When she was close and tried to dive down out of the way of the bullets, Wyrm lashed out with its four of its eight grapplers and held onto her.

The Simurgh's eyes widened in surprise.

And then a thousand and one bullets slammed into her.

Alexandria never saw more than a dozen missiles go off at any one point, so it was a revelation to see what a thousand missiles going off, one after another, on a singular target looked like.

Every quarter of a second, one of the thousand bullets slammed into the Simurgh and Wyrm, and the roar of the explosion engulfed everything everyone heard. For four straight minutes, everyone watched in awe and horror as the high noon sky of Australia grew brighter than the sun itself with each explosion.

As impressed by the firepower that exceeded what Legend would do, Alexandria watched for either of the two combatants to leave the explosions for those two minutes. As the last bullet slammed into the obscured duo within the explosions, everyone tensed. The high winds couldn't blow away the smoke fast enough. Alexandria tensed, a hair trigger away from launching herself up there to fight the False Angel.

And then she saw it.

The Simurgh and Wyrm, still hovering in the sky. Simurgh's own form was battered and cracked, but the Wyrm looked fine even if it was singed and bleeding from more than a few places.

It was clear here that it was the greater of the two.

Alexandria flew up at blinding speed as did Eidolon and Legend and a hundred different capes.

This was it!

If Wyrm could keep her in position, then they could beat her!

But that hope was lost when the Simurgh did something she had never done before.

She telekinetically grabbed Wyrm, and flung him.

Flung him so hard and so far that the initial throw caused Wyrm's skin to burn against the atmosphere as Wyrm found itself flung into the stratosphere. And the Simurgh turned to deal with the rest of the defenders.

Alexandria slammed into the Simurgh's abdomen and the battle begun anew.

-VB-

I roared angrily yet silently, unable to stop myself despite pushing all of my power into decreasing my speed.

That bitch had thrown me so fast and hard that my golden scales were being melted from atmospheric exit! Worse, I was losing my form without an enemy to fight!

"I'm going to fucking kill Eidolon!" I roared angrily as I finally fell below the clouds, but I was going down too fast! My powers weren't enough to slow me down like this!

I roared as I gathered even more oxygen underneath me to create an air cushion to slow my fall, but it wasn't good enough.

The forests below grew closer and closer, and I curled my long wyrm form up into a ball just before I struck the ground.

I hissed for a second as I felt the bones and muscles flatten like pancakes and then I felt the landing tossed me back up from rebound. The rebound uncurled me, and I slammed into trees and boulders before coming to a stop.

I groaned as I slowly got up on my eight - no, six - legs. I was already losing my transformation. "Fucking bitch-!" I hissed through my reptilian mouth, my snake-like tongue curling and snapping in anger as I trembled upright. My draconic form rapidly shrunk, and I went from six legs to four, going from hundred twelve feet to sixty and then to thirty and then to ten. I lost the draconic features - the reptilian head, scales, and extra body length - and shrunk down even further.

Finally reduced back to my fragile six foot and thin human body, I sat on the ruined forest floor with my back to a broken boulder.

"Fuck…" I hissed as let out a sigh of relief. I creened my head to the side until my neck popped and did the same to the other side. Then I jumped on my feet as if I hadn't been involved in a city-wide battle where firepower measured in tons of TNT hadn't been liberally thrown about.

I stiffened for a moment before growling.

Yeah, I was frustrated. I thought I had that battle in the palm of my hand. Clawed palm. Paw. Whatever. I lost a battle, and that irritated me. I needed to vent.

…

Well, I saw where I was going to land when I was high in the air. I knew that I was somewhere in North American east coast. Considering that there were a lot of forests and hills, I had to be in New England.

'When in New England and lost, walk east because the coast was where people lived in New England.'

With that little tidbit of self-made fact about New England, I began to walk, completely ignoring the six football field sized devastation and crater I made with my landing.

I rolled my shoulders a bit as I walked through the forest.

'Did I land on my shoulder?'

I brushed that thought away when the stiffness disappeared, leaving me comfortable in my own skin.

What began to take over my mind, though, was the fact that I was in a fictional universe. It was one thing to wake up naked in an alley - an experience I haven't had the pleasure of having before - but it was another thing to discover superhumans fighting angelic kaijus.

What really nailed it in was the fact that my body began to change when I perceived the threat. Along with the change came the knowledge of how tough I was and what powers were in my possession as well as a rough instruction on how to use them.

Considering that I made the Simurgh blast me away rather than continue to fight me head-on, I thought that I did a pretty good job for my first super-fight.

-VB-

?, 2011

Pushing a branch of the pine tree out of my face, I looked upon the beginnings of a suburban residential district.

"Finally," I growled. "Civilization."

I walked forward, unafraid of anything. After all, I fought Simurgh and threw her down with enough force that she opted to toss me out of the ring rather than continue to fight me, not even the Triumvirate got that kind of treatment.

So what did I have to worry about from this place?

I walked forward, uncaring of my nudity. I walked past the first house, next the first block, and then traveled deeper into the city. Slowly, people began to notice me, and some of them were shouting at me and pointing at me.

I didn't care. They were sheep. They were inferior. They were weak. Why did I have to care for the opinions of the sheep?

"You some kind of a freak?"

I stopped and turned my head towards the one who insulted me in my face.

It was a white boy - a teenager - with a shaved head and weird black and red tattoo beneath his eye. He stood at the center of a group of other shaved heads.

I blinked and stared at him for a second, then I grinned happily. "Oh! Am I in Brockton Bay, then?" I asked giddily. The knowledge that I had to be in Brockton Bay - because where else on Earth Bet were there English speaking idiots so brazenly approach someone out in the open - triggered something inside me.

A desire to claim this city as mine. My power told me that it was the price for receiving its gift: to be a dragon, I must act like a dragon.

My sudden question took them off guard. They stared at me for a second before one of the stoogies, the dumbest looking one with his mouth open and small eyes, responded to my question.

"Uh… Yes?"

I changed my toothless smile into a very toothy grin, showing them the shark-like rows of teeth.

"I always wanted to curbstomp some Nazis."

As I said this, my body began to grow and scales grew over my forearms and hands, culminating in all of my nails changing to claws.

"Oh shit-!" the lead E88 gangster shouted before I swiped at him.

The bystanders screamed when the lead gangster died in a spray of pulverized blood.

The gangsters screamed in shock and horror.

I screamed in ecstasy as I started the process of claiming the city as mine.

The other gangsters quickly turned on me with their fists, some bats, and a crowbar.

I laughed as I took a hit to the face, but my regeneration kicked in and my jaw healed over in an instant. I laughed, blood spraying from my lips as my face grew longer. My longer neck allowed me to snap out and bite down on the crowbar gangster, and he screamed as I ripped his shoulder and neck apart with a rip.

People began to run away, and even a few of the gangsters did too. I let them go. I needed them to call out their leaders.

My laughter became guttural as my vocal cord changed with my body. It became screechier, deeper, and echoey.

I bit the head off the last gangster on site, and spat it out. The head struck the ground and rolled away for a bit, coming to a stop before two armored people. I met eyes with them. A hating knight and a metal wolf.

By this point, I was more of a beast than a human. It was the unfortunate side effect of my power; it made me a beast that sought to kill my enemies mercilessly.

So when I saw those two, I just rushed them with m roaring open maw.

By this point, I was fifteen feet long.

The metal wolf lunged at me, and I brought my maw down upon it, and screeched when the metal wolf blurred within my mouth, breaking my teeth and cutting me all across the roof of my mouth and tongue. My regeneration kicked in, but I was bloodied nonetheless by the wolf first.

I launched it away with a snap of my head, and faced the knight. It said things to me, but I understood none of it. I just roared and lunged at it again, but metal spikes came out of the ground and its body, forming a barrier.

My body crashed into the barrier and tore through it, but I slowed down significantly because of it; I went from lunging fast enough to clear the four lane avenue we were fighting on in a second to taking three seconds to reach him.

The knight jumped away multiple times, laying down more and more of the iron spikes.

Angrily, I roared with my healed mouth and unleashed my electricity. Balls of electricity cracked to life around me, spinning around me lazily, and all of those balls turned into arrows and fired.

Electricity cracked down, searching for positive charges, and found them in the iron knight's metals.

The knight screamed as my lightning arrows struck his metals and electrocuted him.

Stunned, he was a sitting prey.

I charged at him again, only to be halted by the metal wolf crashing down upon my head from above.

The metal wolf, much smaller compared to me now then when I tossed it aside, pushed me down into the ground with how hard it landed on top of my head, and I felt the scales on the bottom of my jaw scrap against the asphalt road.

Then I promptly flicked my head back and watched in satisfaction as the wolf flew away.

Not wanting to be bothered by the small fry, I created ten more lightning arrows and hurled them at it. The bolts screamed as they burned through air, and then slammed into the wolf with enough physical force to send it flying further even as he was electrocuted.

I turned back to the iron knight, only to receive a giant spear to the temple of my draconic head. I growled and slid around the spear, showing the foolish knight that he had done absolutely nothing to me.

I roared and charged him again, and he raised his barriers again. This time, I was too big. I plowed through them, and the squealing of violently bending metals reverberated throughout the street.

Then I was upon him.

The knight screamed as my maw came down on top half of his body and clamped down.

The sensation reminded me of a grape squelching as it popped in my mouth. I threw my head up, opening my jaw, and the body of the knight flew high up into the air with my motion. As the knight ragdolled in the air, I relished in the screaming coming from the knight before …

Well.

Dragon breath.

Fire erupted from the base of my throat and burned everything in front of my mouth. The knight took the fire and his screaming was instantly drowned out by the roaring inferno. I trailed the knight down as he fell, and stopped burning the knight just before it struck the ground. I saw the knight splat on the ground with his melting armor, but the knight remained silent.

He was dead.

I huffed in disappointment.

The Smirugh fight had been exciting. This … this was disappointing.

The metal wolf was back, but remained at the edge of my current striking range. I turned to it, and blew out a twin jet of smokes from my nostrils.

It growled … and then retreated with its tail between its legs.

I lifted my head up and roared in triumphant, shaking the glasses of all of the buildings around me.

-VB-

I didn't stay there after that. I stalked deeper into the city, borrowing the somehow unburned and not bloodied clothes of first group of Nazis I killed.

With a hoodie, a pair of jeans, and a pair of boots too big for me, I walked right past the PRT troopers, their vans, and their Protectorate heroes rushing towards where I was before.

I chuckled as I thought about where I would set up my territory, ignoring the chaos and the bewildered stares of people looking towards where I'd come from but not at me.

As I walked away though, the only thing I was thinking about was where I would settle down.

-VB-

Taylor Hebert, April 8th, 2011

After a long day of dealing with her asshole bullies and indifferent classmates and coming to an empty home, she finally had enough. She did done all of the preparations she needed to take, and the only delay was her will.

And she was done dealing with bullshit. She wanted to be free. She wanted more than what she had.

She would become a hero tonight!

So that had been the plan.

Taylor's plans were simple: patrol around the Docks South, which was where her home was. The internet had a lot of detailed analysis of patrolling and their effectiveness, so she had chosen one "proven" method of patrolling used frequently by independent heroes and vigilantes. Instead of appearing out in the open, she needed to stay hidden. This was part of the reason why she had gone for her dark costume. It let her camouflage.

That much, she had done well. The actual patrolling was going nowhere.

She knew the new big thing in Brockton Bay: Wyrm.

He was first spotted in Canberra, Australia, and he fought against the Simurgh. Someone actually recorded a Simurgh fight and released it on the internet. There was initially a fear that the Simurgh might be able to Master someone through "memetic" effects, but it turned out to be false.

What turned out to be horrifying was the fact that another dragon cape had appeared to fight an Endbringer, and the Endbringer opted to toss him far away from her rather than fight back against him.

She'd thrown Wyrm so far that he landed in New Hampshire after completing a full orbit of the Earth.

That cape came to Brockton Bay, and his first act as a cape outside of his Endbringer battle was to kill a bunch of gangsters of the Empire Eighty-Eight, the local white supremacy/Neo-Nazi cape gang, and then fought Kaiser, the leader of the E88, and Hookwolf, Kaiser's cape lieutenant, before roasting the man to death.

His death had been catastrophic for the bay. The Empire broke apart after Krieg fought with Hookwolf over the leadership of the gang. This fight split the gang into two: those who followed Krieg and those who followed Hookwolf. Thanks to the new bad blood between their two leaders, Krieg's "Aryan Supremacy Party" and Hookwolf's "Fenrir's Chosen" fought more often between themselves than anyone else.

Outside of the E88, people feared that Lung, the leader of the Azn Bay Boyz, would use the opportunity to expand his territory, and he would have if he didn't run into Wyrm. Apparently, some kind of accord was made between the two dragon capes, and Lung opted to expand northward instead of deeper into the city.

And Wyrm, the killer of Kaiser?

He came to reside in Docks South.

'And it's probably why there's no gangsters here,' Taylor thought dejectedly.

Wyrm made his claim to Docks South very loudly, not just vocally (roaring as a hundred feet dragon tended to make things very loud) but also on the internet.

His letter to Brockton Bay, posted on Parahuman Online forums, was very clear and concise.

[Stay the fuck out of the Docks South if you are a cape or PRT. It's mine now. -Signed, Wyrm.]

He even took the moniker that people have been calling him by.

… It was stupid of her to be patrolling here, wasn't it? But this was the only place that she could patrol and not be late to be back home for even just a few hours of sleep for tomorrow.

"... kill those children."

She froze, and when she did so, she finally heard a sound that had been in the background.

It was a slither of a very large creature. The asphalt growled with the passing of ten million scales, and Taylor found herself horrified.

Wyrm.

It had to be Wyrm!

Wyrm was right next to her!

… And he was going to kill children.

Taylor felt her shoulders droop, and her head tilted just a bit up into the air.

… Could she just run away? Save her own skin?

She thought about it very hard.

No.

'I would hate myself for it. I am not them,' she thought to herself, thinking about her indifferent classmates and the worst ones, those who pitied her but did nothing to help her. She would not be like them.

She tilted her head back down and took in a deep breath.

'Oh God. I'm going to die,' she thought to herself before reaching out with her insects. This brought her another bone-chilling fact; Wyrm was already forty feet long.

Despite possessing a very similar power compared to Lung, Wyrm outdid the older Asian dragon when it came to all aspects of his power. He regenerated faster and more thoroughly, he controlled more "elements," but ultimately, he grew larger faster from the same stimuli.

She gulped. She was already at a disadvantage. The video recording of Wyrm's fight with E88 made it clear just how powerful his mass was in a cape fight.

After all, all it took for a forty foot Wyrm to remove Hookwolf as an asset on the battlefield was just flick his head back hard and Hookwolf got thrown far away. Like a whole block away.

She had to … she had to hit hard and dirty.

She gathered her swarm of bugs, gathered them behind buildings, and … stepped out of the shadows.

She found herself staring right at Wyrm.

Her legs trembled as she took in the sight of the cape that even Simurgh did not want to fight.

"Hmm? A cape in my land?"

"S-Stop!" she demanded. "Or I will be forced to stop you!"

Wyrm's draconic head stared at her before he reeled back began to screech loudly …

Was he laughing at her?

"I'm strong!" she shouted at him. He just kept laughing. "W-What is your-?!" she growled before deciding that enough was enough. She brought out her entire swarm. "Surrender!"

Wyrm looked down at her, coiling himself up like a snake. His front most two arms/legs crossed like human arms, and the look he was giving her. It was telling her that he was very unimpressed.

Before she could open her mouth again, she felt a whoosh as the wind picked up. Her hair blew backward, but she stood her ground on trembling legs and spine.

Then she noticed it.

Her swarm began to die.

"W-What?!" she looked around.

Her entire swarm just … dropped dead.

She was alone. Weaponless. Powerless.

Alone with a dragon.

Then the dragon was upon her. It lunged forward and struck with a single hand from his second set of arms. Its index finger struck her with the tip of his claw on her chest and she gasped once and then choked out a scream when her back and head struck the ground together.

The claw on her chest remained, and thankfully, her costume hadn't torn open.

Instead, she felt the slowly mounting pressure.

She quickly latched onto the claw that was as big as her head and tried to move it.

Nothing.

She shouted and grunted but nothing happened.

The pressure began to transition into pain, and she screamed.

She was going to die.

She was going to die.

She choked on her sob even as the pressure continued to rise.

"I-I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" she shouted when the pain began to unbearable.

The mounting pressure halted.

Wyrm slowly began to change, becoming smaller. The pinning pressure was still on her chest but it was nowhere near as painful as it had been.

The worm-like dragon was now humanoid, having shrunk to ten feet tall. He had a tail, but he was definitely draconic. He stood over her, pinning her down with what used to be his second set of arms, which were now legs.

"It sucks being a big dragon," he crooned. "Lose a bit of my sanity and reasoning, you see."

She shuddered.

"It's the price of my power. The bigger and more powerful I become, more beastly and uncontrollable I am."

She didn't say anything.

"Now, I believe you said a few very stupid things to me," he said as he reached down and grabbed her mask. Then he pulled it off her before she could stop him.

"No!" she tried to shield her face with her arms.

"... I've seen you before. You were with that balding man."

She froze.

"He must be your dad?" he asked, and she felt him smile. It was a shift in the atmosphere. "He is your dad, isn't he?"

She trembled beneath him, and started to sob. She made a very bad mistake. Dad was going to be dragged into this!

"I could kill you here and just be done with it, but no. I would get nothing out of this. I was supposed to be chasing the bandits that stole from me. Teenagers like you. Children. I'd been thinking about whether I should kill them but you came and distracted me." He leaned down. "I want you to compensate me."

"B-But y-you're a v-v-"

"Are you really in a position to argue with me?"

She fell silently.

"W-What do you want?"

He cocked his head to the side before he looked up and down at her.

"A lot of things but mostly territory, women, and family."

She stilled. "N-No."

"Yes. Remember, I know who your dad is."

She shook her head and sobbed. "N-No, please, no no-!"

"Is that your final answer?"

She cried. She should have just stayed home. She should have been smart.

He let her cry for a few minutes before he upped the pressure on her chest. She hiccuped and gasped as she grabbed onto his feet.

"Is a life as someone's woman really that bad? Is it worse than death?"

She glared at him, but without her glasses, she couldn't see much details, especially in the dim light of the abandoned street.

"Fine," she spat out.

"Excellent. I've been rather frustrated. We can get started right away." With that, he removed his foot from her chest. Instead, he reached down and picked her up by her waist before tossing her over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes.

"To your home, of course. I want your dad's blessing for our marriage."

Huh?

Huh?!

WHAT?!

-VB-

A/N:

So to recap:

Alan(SI) fought Simurgh with elemental danmaku as a dragon, Simurgh threw him into the mesosphere as revenge, SI did an atmospheric re-entry, landed in New Hampshire, walked to Brockton Bay, attacked E88 gangsters, got attacked by Hookwolf and Kaiser, promptly barbecued the Iron Emperor for lunch, ran into Taylor two months later, and made her his bitch.


	2. Chapter 2

**Commissioned by DefineitlyNotDio**

**Written by Vandalvagabond**

**This is also on my page. Look up "Vandalvagabond"**

**-VB-**

Ethan (Assault), April 9th, 2011.

"The Undersiders did _what_?"

It was a testament to the sheer breadth of experience that PRT ENE had gone through the course of its life that its director, Emily Piggot, only asked the question incredulously and not in shock.

'But I can't say the same for others.'

Triumph, in particular, looked ashen beneath his helmet as did Aegis, the Wards ENE leader since Triumph's graduation last year.

"Aw shucks," Ethan spoke up. "Can I get Battery and I transfers to Arizona?" he asked with a grin, and his puppy kicked him on the side of his leg. He tilted his head to her, and found her glaring at him.

Director Piggot ignored him. "Let me get this straight," the chubby director said, looking like the very essence of exasperation and tiredness. "The Undersiders, a group of teenage cape thieves, decided that sneaking into Wyrm's Lair was a good thing they should do, and came out of it with loot. Wyrm was understandably pissed and chased after them, engaging them at multiple points across Docks South before driving them out of his territory."

"Yes, ma'am," Armsmaster answered rhetorical statements.

"And we didn't learn about it until today?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"So then who the fuck are the idiots who were assigned to watch Wyrm's hideout, and why are they not here?" she growled.

"Agent Michaels and Agent Camberhaust died in Wyrm's first engagement with the Undersiders."

Piggot sighed, though it sounded more like a grunt.

"Fucking idiots," she whispered. She then spoke up louder. "So Wyrm hasn't done anything since he ousted the Undersiders from his territory?" she asked.

"No," Armsmaster replied.

Ethan shivered at the thought of Wyrm rampaging across the city. After what the world saw at the Canberra Endbringer Battle, everyone knew that Wyrm was on par with the likes of the Triumvirate and the Endbringers. Some even argued that he was stronger than the Triumvirates as a whole, considering that the Simurgh removed him from the battlefield rather than fight him like it did with the Triumvirate.

'What did it say about Wyrm,' many argued. That the Simurgh refused to fight it?'

Coupled with exactly four sites of Wyrm's "Danmaku" - Japanese word meaning "bullet curtain" because it was a Japanese cape that first named it - attacks that showed exactly how powerful each of those blasts were compared to the literal thousand Wyrm used in the combat, this idea that Wyrm was stronger than the Triumvirate was credible.

Which made any fighting Wyrm might enact upon Brockton Bay that much worse.

A single of his Danmaku bullet blew up an entire suburban home to oblivion.

What could a thousand do in the center of the city?

"You know, would the dragon be happy if we caught the Undersiders and tossed them in jail? Just because he didn't push out of his territory doesn't mean that he's not angry. If someone pushes him over the edge…"

The meeting room fell silent at his remark.

"Wow, Assault said something valuable to a meeting," Miss Militia joked.

He whipped his head towards her and gawked.

"You made a joke!" he squealed.

Battery stomped on his foot.

Piggot ignored him and Battery's byplay as well as his comments.

"... If jailing the Undersiders or even taking them out of the city makes Wyrm compliant or even docile, then it is something that we will focus on," she said. "Armsmaster, please note that the Undersiders have been moved up on the priority list of capes to be arrested and moved out of state."

"Is that wise, ma'am?"

'I don't think she wants to hear that from _you_,' Ethan thought with a wince.

"Unless you want to fight Wyrm?"

"I do have a few projec-"

"Without causing massive collateral damage that may or may not see our city condemned?"

"... No. Not yet."

"Please repeat to me the Watchdog's analysis on Wyrm."

Armsmaster looked upset.

"Very well," he said before he pulled up something on his helmet HUD. "Wyrm, S class threat. Appraiser stated 'black,' Eleventh Hour stated '10' which is higher than Nilbog, Cadgar stated four words which is one more word than Ashbeast, and Funguy the Fungi -"

"We have a hero named Funguy the Fungi in the Protectorate?" Ethan whispered in awe. "How is this not the biggest news since Dragon!?"

"- stated continental," Armsmaster finished with a wince.

"What does the last one mean?" Aegis asked. "I've never heard of … Funguy."

"New Watchdog member," Piggot grunted out. "Supposedly, his Thinker power lets him categorize information in terms of area affected by looking at an image of the person in question. Continental was never used before Wyrm."

An uneasy silence filled the room.

"Continental?" Miss Militia asked with a frown.

"Each of the Endbringers was projected as regional."

"Before he was blasted away by the Simurgh," Piggot added. "Wyrm was recorded to have reached the length of nearly two hundred feet, and projections of his growth hadn't slowed down once since he entered the fight that day."

With that, she brought out a folder labeled with "Classified: Clearance Level Director."

"This never leaves the room, do you understand? If you break this, then you will just simply disappear," Piggot hissed out. "If you think you can't keep the secret, then step out of the office."

Aegis was the first one. He left in a hurry.

Velocity was the next and last.

Piggot sighed and opened the folder. On it was a single costumed face that too many people were familiar with.

"Chevalier?" Miss Militia uttered in confusion.

"He has a secondary power that lets him see a parahuman's trigger event or the manifestations of powers."

Everyone, including Ethan, understood just how bad that could be. Chevalier's very power went against the Unwritten Rules. Even if the man was genial to a fault, there were villains who wouldn't put their trust in heroes.

"And?" Armsmaster asked, and Ethan hadn't even realized that the man was leaning in.

"Chevalier saw Wyrm's full manifestation. And he could not see the head or the tail. This was the reason why he could not participate during the Canberra Endbringer battle after Wyrm's appearance." She paused to let that fact sink in. "There is a chance that Wyrm himself does not know of this because we have no data of anything like him showing up anywhere in the world. He may even be a fresh trigger from Canberra itself, but the point is, we can't afford to escalate; he'll win unless we nuke him."

"If nuking would have worked, wouldn't the Simurgh have tried that with her tinkertech?" Ethan couldn't help but jibe, only to shut up and really think about his own words. His light and casual attitude began to drop until he only had a blank stare as he contemplated that very question.

Would it have worked?

If Chevalier's secondary power worked as told, then it would mean that Wyrm could be really big. Like island big. Like city-big. Due to the necessities of his power, Ethan had a good grasp of physics, including measurements; he knew instinctively how much he was releasing not in numbers but in "feels," but the government couldn't have a hero who "felt" his way to battle and so they made him learn proper math and physics.

God, it was high school all over again.

… But if his rough calculation was right - and Armsmaster should have one better - then …

If Chevalier couldn't see Wyrm's full manifestation because it had grown beyond what his sight could see, then Wyrm had to stretch beyond three miles.

Three miles.

Three miles of flesh that could not be cut, could not be harmed by even Simurgh's tinkertech, and might not be the last of Wyrm's growth.

Everyone else in the room seemed to have come to the same conclusion as him.

'Oh shit.'

**-VB-**

**Taylor, April 9th, 2011.**  
**Wyrm's Lair**

Taylor tried to calm herself down, taking slow breaths in and out, but it was futile.

Her face lit up with a blush even as she teared up in embarrassment and anger at what was to come.

Before he absconded her to his lair, Wyrm had taken her to her very house discreetly (as discreetly as a dragon could) and managed to talk with her dad privately. He did this as a human and not a dragon, so Taylor got to finally look at Wyrm's face.

He had dark brown hair verging on black, black eyes, sharp chin but normal jaws, a turned-up nose with low nose bridge, and normal lips.

He might have looked attractive, and he was more attractive than most people she'd seen, but the ever scowling face made him look scary, and considering what he intended to do with her, he was scary.

She didn't know what they talked about, and any insect that tried to listen in was either not in the house or too small. Wyrm also made the room he and dad talked in soundproof, somehow, so she couldn't listen in.

After an hour of frustrating wait, dad came out looking defeated… and told her that it was up to her.

She'd thought he would reject. He was supposed to reject him.

Dad was supposed to have said no, stood between her and the monster, and showed her that he cared!

In anger, she told him she would go with Wyrm, and left her dad's house in tears after gathering only a small backpack full of clothes.

And now she was here, sitting still in her costume on Wyrm's really soft bed inside his massive underground bedroom in the deepest part of his lair. On her way down, she'd noticed a lot of things.

But none of those mattered because Wyrm was going to fuck her soon. Literally.

She bit her lower lip in frustration. She wanted to wail and shout at the unfairness of it all. She wanted to be a hero, goddamnit!

There was a click, and Wyrm came out of his bathroom with only a towel around his waist.

She blushed and looked away. Wyrm just chuckled before he walked up to the bed. She crept away from him as he climbed on top of the bed, letting go of his towel.

Then she glimpsed at him - AT HIS FACE - and realized that Wyrm had to be around her age if only a little older than her. Maybe 18?

"Taylor Hebert," he said her name with a drawl as if he was tasting it. "Taylor," he hummed. "I like it."

She blushed hotter and felt the massive room that was cold moments before feel like an oven.

She scowled at him but didn't say anything.

Her momentary pause was enough for him to catch up to her, and he pushed her down gently as he hovered over her.

"Taylor, I want you to understand that I could have taken you violently on that street mere hours ago," Wyrm crooned, showing a bit of his shark teeth as he spoke. "I could have done a lot of things but I went out of my way to give you options and openings, so I'd like for you to work with me too."

She gritted her teeth and glared up at him. She wanted to refuse him, tell him that he would have killed her otherwise, but did she have a choice here?

A real choice? He was going to take her v-virginity, and he was flat out telling her that he had no problem violating her roughly.

She felt tears roll down from her eyes and down her cheek. She thought she would be with someone special. Not like this…!

"What do you want?"

He just grinned. "For now, just hug me."

Reluctantly, she laid down her opened her arms up towards him, and he leaned down. Her arms twitched as she forced herself to wrap her arms around his shoulders - very broad and muscular shoulders - and onto his back - hard and smooth back. Her breath hitched when she felt her admittedly very small chest touched his chest, and her blush came back with revenge, spreading everything to her body. Everything felt _hot_!

She whimpered as she felt his arms dig under her and wrap around her. She closed her eyes and then yelped when she felt him pull both of them up. It was only then that she realized she was now straddling him.

Taylor froze when she felt his _thing _pressing against the bottom of her costume, and then whimpered as she felt his finger found her costume's back zipper and began to slowly pull it down.

His other hand cupped the back of her head as he pulled back. She squeezed her eyes shut and felt herself be leaned forward-.

Brush. His lips brushed against hers.

She whimpered pathetically. God, she was pathetic.

"Just enjoy this, Taylor," he whispered to her as he began to peel her costume off of her. "Enjoy becoming a woman." He pushed her back down, pulling her costume off of her arms and then pulled them off of her. Without a care, he tossed her months worth of work aside. She would have protested if she didn't see his eyes roam over her naked - and sweaty - body. He ignored the bruise on her chest - the bruise that he made - and instead roamed his eyes slowly, as if he engrave her very image into his mind, up and down.

She shivered and quickly crossed an arm over her chest and a hand to cover herself below.

He grabbed her wrists into one of his hands and pinned them above her head. Then she watched, a little in horror and a little in what she feared was arousal, as his free hand snaked down there and-!

"Unngh!" she moaned as his fingers brushed against her clit. Her legs tried to close but his body blocked their way. Her back arched as his finger began to lightly rub against her-! She bit down on her lower lip, refusing to moan to his ministration.

Her eyes teared up as he began to rub her faster.

Then-.

She gasped his fingers entered into her fold, slipping through because of how wet she was.

God, was she this much of a whore? Getting wet from a person who was literally forcing himself on her?

She wanted to cry, damn it.

She tried to get out of this hold, but her legs were pulled aside and her wrists were pinned above her head.

His fingers pushed deeper, and he rubbed at her walls as he dragged them back out. She shuddered from how good it felt and then hiccuped and gasped as he pushed his fingers back in.

Abruptly, Wyrm picked up pace and began to piston his fingers!

"Ah ah AH AH-!" Taylor moaned, unable to stop herself. She hated herself for being so weak! "No, th-this is too much! I don't-!"

Wyrm leaned down and caught her lips with his, and her eyes flew open as she felt his tongue pushed into her open mouth. Instinctively, she bit down but against him, it did nothing. Instead, his tongue pushed her tongue, leaving sticky connections everywhere. She tasted him. Oh God, she was kissing someone! Wyrm was French-kissing her!

Her eyes began to roll up and over as her mouth and vagina was assaulted. The heat, the smell, and the sensation was beginning to overwhelm her.

'Oh God, oh God, oh G-!'

"MMMHHHHH!" she screamed into his mouth as she climaxed from his fingers. Her back arched and she pushed herself against Wyrm unknowingly before she collapsed, slowly coming down from her first sexual high.

Seemingly satisfied with what he'd done to her, Wyrm broke the kiss and moved to hover over her.

Her hazed eyes saw black spots in her vision even as her body trembled from her … c-climax.

"Now, we get to the fun part," he said as he pulled back. He grabbed and lined himself up with her, and she watched helplessly as he began to slide in.

Taylor jolted as she felt his dick push into her, and she tried to get up, but her arms shook from her very recent and first ever climax. She pushed herself up, only to fall back down as she slipped.

Wyrm took this chance to push himself deeper even as he grabbed her wrists and pulled her arms forever, keeping her pinned to her own body.

"AHHH!" Taylor screamed when she felt him penetrate deep into her, stretching her in places she didn't even know she had. He filled her up, and she hissed as he broke through her hymen. She tightened around him without meaning to, and he moaned throatily.

Her breath hitched when she heard that chest rumbling noise of pleasure. She didn't have time to contemplate why she felt good about eliciting that response from Wyrm of all people, because he began to pull out, leaving her with a surprisingly heady, tightening, and ecstatic feeling.

Taylor moaned, unable to stop herself, and then she whimpered when he almost removed himself out of her.

She mewled when he slammed himself back into her.

He rotated his hips, and her hips bucked along with him. She gasped and moaned as the head of his dick seemed to scrap all around her walls.

Then he stopped after pushing himself fully in her. Sitting there with his back straight and looking down at her, he looked … attractive.

Even if he was forcing himself on her.

He grinned, flashing his teeth, and she shivered.

"You're mine, now. My woman."

Then he pulled out and slammed back into her, pushing against the deepest part of her.

Taylor hiccuped and moaned as Wyrm's dick pushed deep into her again, far more than he had last time.

Wyrm wiggled his hips, and she groaned at a small explosion of sensation. "W-Wait, too much…!" she whimpered as he pumped her for what her un-womanly body was worth. Laying down as she was, his incessant thrusts bounced her up and down the bed, and she cried out like a bitch.

"Y-Yes, m-more! More!" she moaned out like a whore.

God, this was pathetic.

She hated herself.

Taylor cried as he grabbed each of her thighs and used them as leverage to better reach into her with his dick. Her back arched as she felt his dick begin to slip in and out of her almost without her able to determine how fast he was going. With her hands finally free, she grabbed the bedcover and pulled.

Her flat chest was still breasts, and they bounced up and down just a tiny bit as Wyrm mercilessly -!

Abruptly, he let go of her thighs and pulled himself on top of her. She squeaked as his chest landed on top of hers, and her legs were spread out to the side. She whimpered as his lips claimed her lips again while he caught her hands with his hands, pinning them at her neck level and to the side.

Then he began to piston.

If what he was doing before was fast, then this was breakneck thrusting.

Her eyes widened and she screamed into his mouth. Her ass felt like it was on fire from how he was pounding her with his crotch, and pleasure began to override her senses in everything. She screamed ecstatically as his dick molded her vagina to his shape with each thrust, scrapping the walls above and smoothing the walls below as the sides of her walls were simulated endlessly by his fat dick.

Her eyes rolled in her head as she finally lost herself to the pleasure.

Finally, he pounded down and stopped.

Spurt. Spurt.

She choked on his tongue even as she climaxed herself, pushed over the edge by his hot semen painting the deepest portions of her vagina, claiming her as his. Today was by no means a safe day. If she was fully aware of herself, then she would have done a lot in her power to stop it from happening, but she wasn't in her right mind; she experienced the bliss of sex without constraint with someone who was more experienced than her and wasn't afraid to make her first night on the bed "memorable."

His hands had let go of her hands some time ago and his arms now wrapped around her, keeping her in a vice grip as her back arched as his dick pushed deeper even as he continued to shoot his seeds.

Finally, it was over.

Taylor felt her body explosively relax like a marionette with her strings, but her legs were kept spread by the obstacle that was Wyrm's waist and his thighs kept her thighs up in the air. She laid there, savoring her first night even as she realized that he'd ejaculated inside of her.

He unwrapped his arms and pushed himself off of her, putting a hand on the bed by each side of her shoulder. He looked down at her, sweaty as she was, satisfied and triumphant.

She laid there, defeated and claimed yet somehow, it didn't feel as bad as it should have.

"Don't worry," he said as he caressed her cheeks. "We'll be raising any baby we make together."

Taylor couldn't take it anymore. She fell unconscious with that word at the forefront of her mind.

_Baby._


	3. Chapter 3

**Wyrm (Alan Marris)  
Wyrm's Lair  
April 10th, 2011 Morning**

I had an aversion.

Ever since I became Wyrm, I have categorized a lot of changes that I have experienced and of them the ones that stand out the most was thus: beast-like mentality post-stage one transformation, lust after parahuman woman, and an _aversion _for regular woman. I wondered at first why I was feeling this way.

I mean, I wasn't a virgin when I took Taylor's virginity and I really liked my first … second … third and many more sexes that came before Taylor, so why did I gain this sudden aversion to romancing regular women when I clearly wanted to fuck?

It took a while but I reached a conclusion: my power.

The only difference before I gained this new "my type" of women was the fact that I got superpowers. Yes, I'd fucked a few other women since I came to Brockton Bay, but none of them satisfied me. It just … felt like I was masturbating more than I was having sex.

But Taylor definitely made sex better. Maybe it was because of how tight she was or how the inexperienced teenager's all too honest reaction just turned me on more. Regardless, fucking Taylor and giving her a creampie definitely ranked somewhere in the top five experiences of my lives.

That said, I needed to have a serious talk with her about what her situation and circumstances were before I went out to hunt the Undersiders again.

"Ungh."

Ah, just in time.

Taylor groaned as she tossed and turned on the bed, only to suddenly shoot up and then attempt to cover herself with the bedsheets after realizing she was naked. She looked around and found me sitting right next to her, naked as she was.

"Hello, honey," I grinned as I stared up at her while laying down on my side and keeping my head supported up with my arm. "Did you enjoy the sex last night?"

She stared at me for a few moments before the blush was back.

"Y-Y-You-!"

"Don't be shy," I said while giving her a cocky smirk. "If you forgot my name, then I can certainly take you for round two to make you scream it again."

Her blush grew deeper and spread to more of her. She shut up after that, just glaring at me, before she finally lost her own will to glare and just slumped. "I-I'm really a w-whore now, aren't I?" she mumbled.

I raised an eyebrow. "What makes you say that?"

"I sold myself to you to spare dad," she spat while glaring.

"... I suppose, but no. You became my woman, so you aren't here for just one night, and thus you are not a whore," I said before gently cupping her right hand and pulling it up. There, on her right ring finger, was a gold ring that I slipped on while she slept after our first consummation.

She stared at the ring with wide eyes before looking back at me.

"B-but I'm ugly."

Ah yes, the self-esteem issue that I've read about. It was something that existed with canon Taylor for a long time.

"I wouldn't say you're ugly," I spoke up to get her attention as I sat up. "If you were, then I wouldn't have sex with you." Before she could speak, I wrapped my arms around her half-heartedly resisting body. "It felt good, right? I didn't just use you for my pleasure."

She pulled at my arms around her chest and neck before giving in and leaning into my embrace.

Most people wouldn't lean into the embrace of someone who coerced them into a relationship. She must have been very starved for affection and touch if all it took for me to get her to be even mildly affectionate was a night of sex, few choice words about her, and a few words about how I wanted her to also feel good.

I leaned down, and she looked up. I caught her lips on mine and slowly kissed her. She froze for a second before her lips moved with mine. She moved hesitantly and unsurely, so I led her in this dance of lips.

We sat there, kissing and touching, until she had to surface for a breath. And she did it with a gasp too.

I chuckled.

"What?!" she hissed at me.

"I just like how honest you are."

She looked torn between wanting to glare and pout, so she did both after a while.

"... Are you going to keep me in your 'lair'?" she asked after a while.

"No."

"Then?"

"The only thing I will ask from you, Taylor, is that you take my name as my woman, know that you will not be my only woman-" she looked hurt but I pressed on. "-and only have a sexual relationship with me."

"... that's it?" she asked a bit bitterly. "You don't want me to work for you because I just control bugs? You think I'm weak?"

"Bugs are terrifying," I told her pointedly, which startled her. "Bugs can be anywhere and everywhere, and unless you are hard countered by people like me, then you can do anything you want."

"Like what?"

Thoughts and ideas I've read in my past life - my life before coming to Earth Bet - surfaced by the dozens. "You can attack without actually being there, using bugs to make avatars for others to talk to you with -" she looked frustrated after a moment, probably because she was scolding herself for not thinking of that. "- if you don't want that, then you can do what you did when you met me; using large swarms to both intimidate and attack. If you don't want to fight, then you can use your bugs to pollinate orchards and farms to rake in money by the tens of thousands per job."

"Really?" she looked surprised.

I snorted. "You would be surprised how much of the world's food production depends on pollinating insects."

"... Okay. What do you think I should do?" she asked hesitantly after a while.

"What I want you to do is to be beneath me as I impregnate you every single night for the next decade," I growled as I kissed her neck, and she shivered and moaned a little. "But that's not what you want: cooped up and being a broodmare."

"No," she glared at me.

I pulled back from kissing and biting her neck. "So I won't make you. Instead, I want you to be honest with yourself. Why do you want to be a hero?" I asked.

"Because heroes are -"

"Be honest."

"-... right?" she finished.

"Wrong. Modern heroes are celebrities. You do not dress like a celebrity."

She frowned at me in frustration. "Then what do you think I want?"

"You want to relieve your stress. You want to fight. You want to be in control of the situation."

"I-" she stopped. "... Do I?"

Maybe sex really did loosen her up a little. Canon Taylor would have never admitted that she was wrong unless it was objectively wrong (and even then, canon Taylor would excuse - and did excuse - her actions as necessary).

"All parahumans do. It's a known fact. Powers seek conflict," I replied before I flipped her around. She squeaked, finding herself nude in front of me. "I just seek something more than just fighting."

"W-W-What is your power?!" she asked hastily.

I stopped leaning down to kiss her and pull her. It was obvious what she was doing, still being unfamiliar and uncomfortable with me and having sex.

… I would let it go for now.

"I am the better Lung," I said as I just forced her to straddle me while I kept her close with my arms around her waist. She squirmed and blushed as our naked bodies touched each other, and her eyes refused to meet mine as she felt throbbing dick underneath her.

"But you used electricity. And whatever you did my insects."

"Yup. I can control lightning as well as air. All I did, Taylor, was compact the air to extreme degrees, causing abrupt heightening of air temperature, where I felt peculiar disturbances. In essence, your bugs - as I learned your powers to be - died from being exposed to extreme air pressure and heat."

She stared at me. "T-That's ridiculous."

"On the contrary, my control over the elements isn't stable. As I am now, I can only control so much." So show her, I picked up the current of the air in my bedroom, and all it did was cause her hair to flutter. After a moment or two, I stopped it. I then created three lightning balls that began to orbit around us, and she yelped when one of them got close to her back and caused a static discharge.

I chuckled as she pressed herself against me, and I tightened my arms' hold over her, forcing her to remain pressed against me.

She looked up at me and glared.

"You did that on purpose."

"I did not," I said as I allowed the lightning balls to disperse. "This, however, I mean."

I leaned down and kissed her.

'My woman,' I thought as I pulled her down with me as I laid back onto the bed and kissed her until she couldn't breathe as I grinded my shaft against her clit. I left her breathless and needy again and again and again.

Then I flipped us around, looked at her, and rammed my dick into her. She screamed in ecstasy for the next half hour as I filled up her womb with my cum.

**-VB-**

An hour later, I came out of the bathroom, having thoroughly washed myself after Taylor had. When I entered my bedroom, I saw Taylor tittering with her costume on but without her mask.

"Yes?"

"S-So you want me to come back, right?" she asked.

I blinked twice before sighing and walking over to her. She yelped when my naked body pressed against her, and I wrapped her up in a hug.

"Have a safe trip, Taylor." She hugged me back hesitantly and then fiercely.

"Okay."

"Oh, by the way."

She looked up while we hugged. "Hmm?"

"I might be going out to hunt the Undersiders sometime soon and I might do it as a fully fledged dragon, so you might not want to be in my path."

"Why?"

"I can't think straight when I am a full dragon."

"... But you beat down the Simurgh."

My fight with the Simurgh had been publicized. I was the second Lung with more firepower and more powers in general. I grew bigger faster, and I struck harder and faster. Everyone was worried about me, and I knew - guessed - that the PRT and Protectorate ENE wanted to keep me from going all-out.

They lost against Lung; what could they do against someone who was not only bigger than Lung but had more firepower than him when they couldn't take the lesser version of me down with their entire rooster?

"And I wasn't thinking. If I was, then I would have bombarded her from a mile away, though I suspect with what she did to me, that her "range" is just her sandbagging."

Taylor looked stricken at the thought that the Endbringers were pulling their punches.

If I was from Earth Bet, then I too would be stricken but I was not. I didn't have the same emotional and historical connection to the Endbringers.

I shrugged as I removed my arms from her. "I'm sure we'll be fine," I replied. "If anyone comes at us here in the bay, then I can always use a Round 2."

She fidgeted for a few more moments before gathering her courage. "Okay. I'll be going."

"By the way, didn't you have school today?"

"... ARGH!"

I laughed. "By the way, Taylor," I said before she left. She turned around to look at me. "My name is Alan."

She stared at me before nodding. "I'll be back, Alan." And then she left to wherever she wanted to go. Considering her personality, she might go back to school.

Speaking of her school, now that Taylor was mine her issues were also mine.

I would have to speak with the school board soon.

As I watched Taylor wave me a hesitant "see you later" and leave my bedroom, I was left with a conundrum.

School board or the Undersiders?

The incompetent officials or the petty thieves?

Those whose inaction hurt my first woman or the ones that stole directly from my hoard?

Choices, choices, choices…

…

Or I could just continue with my original plan. Yes, let's do that.

**-VB-**

**Dinah Alcott  
April 11, 2011 Noon**

Dinah ran as fast as her legs could carry her, splashing dirty alley water as she tap-tap-tapped her way to her freedom.

Then there was a fork that was coming up.

'Is left safe?!' she screamed mentally even as her head felt like it was going to crack in half.

[17% chance of leaving the alley if left is taken,] her power responded.

Dinah sobbed as she turned right without slowing down a little bit and slipped, and slammed into the wall as a result. Even though her face hurt from hitting the wall, she ran forward as her white dress became dirtier and dirtier.

She tripped and fell down, scratching her knees against the muddy and trash littered ground. She cried out in pain as she rolled, but she got up on shaky and burning legs before she took off again.

The end of the alley! She could see it up ahead!

"She's over there!" someone shouted from far behind her.

She pushed herself faster. Even as she felt her blood dribbling down her legs and cool in the spring winds, Dinah pushed herself to go faster and further with each stride.

Then she made it out-.

And got scooped up.

"Let me go, let me go!" she shouted before realizing where she was. What she thought had been the end of the alley was merely a wider alley between the compact buildings of the Downtown.

"Shut up," the man growled, and she froze. She slowly looked up and her eyes widened. She saw who'd picked her up by her waist, and saw a man with a scowl on his face with short black hair and shark-like teeth. She saw his face before on TV. Everyone in Brockton Bay saw it because he did something no one else had done; he'd torn down the Empire Eighty-Eight, the longest lasting and most numerous parahuman gang, by killing its leader, Kaiser.

"W-Wyrm…?" she croaked hoarsely. 'Is he going to hurt me?' [2.9% chance of Wyrm hurting us.] "H-Help me!"

"From who?" he asked with a grunt. "Them?"

He shifted her over so that she could look at the alley, and saw the people who'd been chasing her were now laying face down on the ground with new strangers… holding guns…

She hiccuped.

He shifted her back so that she couldn't look deep into the alley anymore, and she trembled while looking at him in the eye.

"Yeah, I'm Wyrm and I know that you're a cape." She shrunk into herself despite being held up in the air by his hands on her waist. "I saved your life, so work for me."

"Bwah?"

"You speak and understand English. Speak English."

"W-W-"

"I saved your life, little missy," he grunted as the new strangers who'd done something to her chasers stepped out of the alley. They all wore dark green bulletproof vests, helmets, thick looking pants, and steel-toed boots. If it wasn't for the dangerous looking guns, the dark green scheme, and the teeth-like logo on their upper left chest, then Dinah might have thought that the three professional people in front of her were from the PRT.

But the logo was a dead giveaway that they weren't from PRT.

As were the guns.

And the blood on their boots.

Dinah trembled but Wyrm ignored her. His head turned to these new people and grunted. The "soldiers" saluted and dispersed, disappearing in seconds. He turned back to her.

"I saved your life. You owe me," he grunted to her. "So work for me. I'll give you protection, you give me answers with your powers. Good?"

She nodded hastily. If that was all there was to this, then she wasn't going to say no.

He set her down. "Good. We'll go to my lair now."

**-VB-**

**Wyrm  
Wyrm's Lair  
April 11, 2011 Dusk**

My talk with Dinah's parents over the phone went roughly. I was basically forcing her to work for me because I saved her. It wasn't heroic, but I wasn't trying to be a hero. Her parents were against it, but I reminded them that I was Wyrm; I got what I wanted, and I wanted Dinah to work for me and I had her with me.

I reminded them that yes, they could call the PRT, and no, the PRT would not be able to do anything against me.

Was I kidnapping her?

Officially and legally, yes, I was taking her away from her unsafe household.

Unofficially, Dinah herself agreed to it. I never said I would harm her if she refused. Was it a douche move?

The better question was this: was my decision to get Dinah to work for me in what I considered a safe environment better than dumping her in the PRT where she was likely to get kidnapped or back in her home where her parents did not take her seriously and where she would get kidnapped?

I was the least evil of them all!

I even gave her a _salary_.

In gold.

The thing about being an elemental mastery dragon, which was what I was, was that I could pull up the earth whichever way I wanted. Including copper, gold, silver, and titanium to name a few, but also by iron, platinum, rare earth metals, and so much more. This was part of the reason why I took one of the warehouses in the industrial district of the Docks South and made my lair by digging down. The mere act of digging exposed the earth to me, and I could more easily shift things around and pull more out when there was more surface area to pull them out through.

My Dragonteeth organization, comprised mostly of formerly homeless veterans from the US military who have been dissed by the government because they wouldn't join the PRT, was not funded by drug market, forced prostitution, or gambling. They were paid by the money I made from pulling out minerals from the earth and selling them.

In essence, I was in charge of an illegal mining operation, and most of my organization spent time transporting goods out of the warehouse to be sold to refineries in Boston and southern Brockton Bay.

Things like Palladium, which was used to resist corrosion, was also used in electronics as catalysts, but Russia, the world's biggest producer of Palladium, wasn't selling to the USA because Leviathan cut off the world's shipping industry. The price of Palladium, as a result, skyrocketed along with other materials especially since Tinkers needed it, and the USA Protectorate had a lot of Tinkers among their ranks.

USA and Canada combined produced maybe twenty thousand kilograms annually, and everyone wanted - no, NEEDED - it.

A kilogram of raw Palladium ore went around three thousand dollars these days.

And I produced a kilogram of Palladium every two days along with many, many, many other minerals and elements.

Hell, I was thinking about having my own refinery to make selling this shit easier. Since I also didn't pay taxes, my profit margin was literally 100%.

The best point was that I did this without making giant mines, holes in the ground, or other destructive means. I just shoved refuse concrete into the earth - the broken concrete that no one wanted - that I - my intermediaries - received money to take away from construction and demolition sites.

Was Fortress Construction one of my suppliers?

No. I wasn't that high up in the business ladders and Fortress Construction tried to remove themselves from "black market" - read: "any kind of business transaction that was not done formally with paperwork and banks" - transactions.

It probably was just Coil being Coil, separating identities and whatnot.

It was through this mining operation, which was completely dependent on me spending several hours every day in a week or a full day or two in a week to draw out the minerals out of the earth slowly and quietly without alerting anyone, that supported the Dragonteeth.

As an organization, the purpose of the Dragonteeth was based on two principles: discipline and subservience. The Dragonteeth would never become some criminal gang. Only those who have proven their worth were allowed to join, and the entire organization belonged to me and thus all within served me.

On a minor note, most of the ex-military who were with me in the Dragonteeth were different from the mercenaries Coil hired. Coil's mercenaries were professionals from around the world and wielded tinkertech. My "Teeth" - as I called my soldiers - were less soldiers and more members of the Dragonteeth community.

Money was important, yes, but it wasn't everything in the Dragonteeth. I handpicked the two hundred and more members of the Dragonteeth over the last two months based on what they represented.

Downtrodden, neglected, and misunderstood.

I didn't care if you were gay and got kicked out of the military because of it some two decades ago.

I didn't care that you were scapegoated into being discharged dishonorably.

I didn't care that the government that you bled for ignored you.

"Will you work for me?" I had asked.

"Yes," they had answered.

Why?

Because I promised them prosperity. I promised them power. I promised them many things and I required service in return.

The Dragonteeth was not the Merchants that addled themselves with narcotics. The Dragonteeth was not ethnic gangs that the Pure, one of the two rememnants of Empire Eighty-Eight, and Azn Bad Boyz, Lung's hideous "pan-asian" amalgam gang, were.

The Dragonteeth was a promise of a better tomorrow through service and reward.

Considering that I was paying them, I already fulfilled my half of the promise. In the days to come, they would show me if they could serve me well.


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: This chapter is far more violent sexually than Taylor's first night was. **

* * *

**Taylor Hebert  
Wyrm's Lair  
April 16, 2011 Night**

Tonight, she learned something new.

As she grabbed the front of Wyrm's - Alan's - shirt, pulled him down as she pulled herself up, and kissed me aggressively, she learned that it was possible to love and hate someone at the same time.

Alan was different. Even though he spoke like a person, moved like a person, and reasoned like a person, there was an underlying difference in him that separated him from _humans_ in general. He thought differently, and it showed in his behavior. Even though he forced her into this relationship, he acted as if all was right. He took her virginity and used her every night after threatening her with death the first time they met, and he still called her his.

He called her beautiful, he touched her, and did things to her no one had done to and for her.

She hated him - utterly hated him! - for taking her freedom away. He took away her right to choose who she wanted to show all of herself to. He fucked her, ejaculated into her, and … probably impregnated her.

But in the short time that she'd been with him, she got a crush on him. He didn't just make himself feel good when they had sex; he made her feel so good that she was left breathless and incapable of moving most of the time. He didn't use her and leave her like she was a sex toy, but got to know her and talk with her.

… Hell, he was the only person who talked with her and meant well, even if he had other reasons too.

Alan's hands slipped underneath her t-shirt and pulled them over her head, and she moaned dejectedly as he stopped kissing her. He stared down at her bra-less chest and developing boobs, and then looked back up to her.

She shivered as she met his gaze with her arms and hands clinging to his arms.

He shook her arms off, and pulled his own shirt off of himself. He tossed it aside as he had done with her shirt. He scooped her up, and briskly took long strides to their bed.

"Their" bed.

As Alan laid her down on the bed and pulled her baggy pants off of her, Taylor tittered with the thought of being someone's wife. No, Alan never called her his wife but always called her his woman. Taylor didn't see a difference between the two words, especially not in the way that he was treating her.

If he intended her to be a bedwarmer only, then he didn't need to talk with her as sincerely as he did. He didn't need to talk and help her find out about what she wanted. He didn't need to kiss her gently and warmly as he did whenever she went out for the day.

She whimpered as he took off his pants, and saw his throbbing dick twitching freely in the air. He kneeled down and placed his shaft on top of her clit and began to grind against her. She moaned in euphoria as she felt her body heat up and as her clit sent all sorts of pleasure tingling throughout body.

"N-No!" she shouted abruptly, not wanting to give him control again. He looked down at her quizzically. "Y-You get on the bed! I want to be on top!"

He smirked. "Aw, does my woman want to be dominating today?" he teased before he leaned down and kissed her. She squawked as his lips caught hers and his tongue invaded deep into her mouth through a small gap between her teeth. Her utterance of disapproval turned into moans soon after when his tongue began to leave all manners of sticky connections inside her mouth and his dick grinded against her entrance. Her arms went around his shoulder and back as she tried to pull him down. All she did was lift herself up a little.

His hands weren't idle. They grabbed her ass from behind and pulled her up towards him, effectively putting the pressure that she couldn't to their grinding.

She slapped his back while glaring at him.

Instead of breaking the kiss, he just flipped the two of them around, and she found herself suddenly on top.

"AH!" she mewled as she broke the kiss. She pulled her upper body up and stared down at him.

She hated him… and really really liked him.

He stared up at her with those certain eyes. Her silky and wavy hair fell down around her face like a veil, and he seemed to pierce through them to meet her gaze. She met his lusty gaze and couldn't help but gulp.

"Come on, Taylor. Didn't you say you were going to be in control?" he asked.

She frowned before she bucked her hips against his shaft. She moaned but felt elated to hear Alan moan too. She grinded herself on him back and forth, wetting his shaft with her dribbling juices. Things were getting really sticky.

Her breath hitched as she felt his hands remove themselves from her ass and thigh and rest of cup her sides before his thumb and index finger latched onto her hard nipples. She moaned as he rolled them between his fingers while cupping her A cups. She whimpered a little in pain mixed with pleasure as he pushed her breasts in.

"H-Hey, that hurts!" she complained even as she sped up her grinding. Grinding against Alan's dick felt so g-good and naughty and -! "Eek!" she mewled as she climaxed, and her body shuddered from the pleasure that rocked her body. Her trembling arms pushed against his chest in an effort to keep herself up and in control.

He let go of her breasts and latched onto her waist.

"Come on, Taylor. Put me in you. Impale yourself on me."

She glared at him even as she moved her trembling hand to guide his dick into position.

'I'm… I'm going to be pregnant,' she thought. She didn't know what to think about that.

"Y-You're an asshole!" she shouted as she plunged herself down, and moaned as her vagina tightened and trembled around his dick. "F-Feels so good," she mumbled.

"You feel great too, Taylor," he growled as he bounced his hips. She gasped as her hips bounced off and he pulled her down and he repeated this again and again. She moaned and gasped as her back arched and she threw her head back in ecstasy.

"You're making me crazy~!" she shrilly screamed as he picked up pace. "EEK EEK EEK-!"

"Because you're crazy good!" he shouted at me as he began to pound into her from below. She lost control and she cried as she climaxed again and he ejaculated into her.

She sat there, straddling him, while drooling as she focused on feeling his hot cum spurting into her and coating all of her insides in their slowly dribbling, sticky hot mess. She panted like a bitch, moaning at the same time as her body trembled.

**-VB-**

Her vision blacked out, and when she finally got a sense of her bearings, she was laying down on top of Alan. She looked up blearily, and realized that she must have fallen asleep, because the clock on the nightstand said it was 6 o' clock A.M.

She looked down at Alan and saw his sleeping face.

And for a moment, a sinister thought came to rest within her mind.

_She could kill him_.

Her wide eyes stared down at Alans - no, Wyrm's - defenseless neck.

A single spider would do the job.

And then that thought disappeared as soon as it came, and she was left sick with herself. She peeled herself off of him and rushed to the bathroom, knelt down in front of the toilet, and dry-gagged. She trembled as she thought about what kind of horrible thought she had and why she had it.

She sobbed. "I'm a horrible person," she mumbled to herself.

The door to the restroom opened and she saw Alan walk in. Wordlessly, he sat down next to her and stroked her naked back.

"There, there," he said, completely unaware of what had gone on inside her twisted mind. God, why was she so messed up? Was Emma right? Was she worthless?

She sobbed even as Alan stroked her back, and it felt good to have someone caress her like this.

When it was finally over, and they were back in their bed thirty minutes later, she clung to him and buried her face into his neck and chest. She hated and loved him. Hated how he just forced her to be his without any romancing or other things she'd dreamt of doing and loved him for making her feel good and wanted.

For now, she loved him more despite how terrifying her first night had been.

God, her life was pathetic.

**-VB-**

**Wyrm (Alan Marris)  
Wyrm's Lair  
April 17, 2011 Morning**

After seeing out Taylor who went to school again, I went to what I called my "Ore Chamber." It was a large and roughly carved out chamber at the end of a tunnel lined with rails and minecarts where I sat and drew ores out everyday.

It was a boring place, but it was also where I micromanaged the operations of the Dragonteeth.

"Report," I grunted as I sat down at the heart of the chamber and transformed. My six foot teenager body morphed into a forty foot long wyrmling, and I coiled around myself and then put my head on top of my coiled body as the speaker attached to the ceiling buzzed to life.

"Good morning, Lord Wyrm. How are you doing today? Is your new lover mellowing you out?"

My throat rumbled in disapproval of the casualness of my lieutenant even as half of my focus was on pulling rare elements and minerals out of the earth intact. Minecarts began to roll in, and I watched as the first ores to be pulled out gently floated over to the carts before dropping in.

I, of course, sorted them here and now instead of letting people do it for me.

"You're supposed to be telling me how the operations are going, Steward Bao," I grunted.

Bao - real name: Yi Nchugar - was an ever cheerful man, even when he was homeless. He never ceased to bring the mood up, but he's been getting out of hand lately with his constant poking into my personal matters.

"I know, Lord Wyrm, but everyone wants to know how you're doing~," he cackled.

He may also be slightly insane, provoking me like this without cessation.

I groaned in frustration. "She and I are doing fine, thank you. Now, report."

"Haa… You're no fun, Lord Wyrm. No juicy gossip. Very well, which one would you like me to start first?"

"The Winslow situation."

I needed some time to deal with the inept and corrupt Winslow staff, so I couldn't kill them off the moment I made Taylor mine.

Prior to that, Taylor wasn't mine so I hadn't needed to care about them in the first place.

Now she was.

Now I cared.

"A peace offering for the lady, hmm?" Bao hummed. "Well, as you ordered, we found the necessary evidence needed to expose the corruption of the PRT handler, the Winslow principal, the teachers, other staff, and the face and pictures of the three bullies and gave them over to Shawn."

Shawn was our public relations officer, though his correspondence with anyone else happened through the internet because of his agoraphobia. He was, however, a master, having shown me more than ten different occasions where he steered the public opinion for those he worked for.

His cause for being ousted from his former job? Scapegoated. His rival for a position at a company got him drunk at a party and filed a sexual harassment complaint.

"And?"

"The local, state, and national news media smell blood in the water. I give the PRT less than a day before they respond either with censorship or PR groveling."

"Probably the latter," I crooned happily at a job well done. "Next?"

"We now know all of the hideouts of the Fenrir's Chosen. We just need your approval and participation to put an end to them."

"The Pure?"

"In a similar situation."

"Their chances at assimilation?"

"... You just want to fuck the MILF, don't you, sir?"

"Have you seen her, Bao?"

"I have."

"And you still ask me?"

"I'm not into brunette, milord."

"More girls for me. Assimilation chances?"

"Moderate, if you have the right leverage. If you get Purity, then the mindless Fog and Night will follow."

"Good. Merchants?"

"You just have to take out the trash, milord."

"And Lung?"

"He seems to be honoring the pact he made with you, milord. No ABB member has entered our territory without being punished and none of our members have gone into their territory."

"And the spies?"

"They report that Lung intends to break the pact as soon as we are weak or overextended enough."

"Typical."

By the end of the first conversation, nine minecarts were filled to the brim with ores of all kinds. The minecarts then rolled away to their destination as I used my power to push the ores away from me. The next set of minecarts came through.

"Other minor players?"

"Nothing that we haven't expected from them." There was a sound of paper shifting. "That's it for today's report, sir. Will you be continuing your shifting operation?"

The members of the Dragonteeth didn't want to name my activity "mining," so they called it "shifting" because I was "shifting" ores without touching the rest of the earth and rocks.

"Yes."

"Then have a good morning, milord."

Then I was left alone to shift through thousands of tons of ores.

**-VB-**

Close to when I intended to stop shifting for ores for the day, the intercomm buzzed to life again to my surprise. Bao didn't like to make two different reports when he could do it in one, so there must have been an alteration of some kind to get him to call me.

"Yes, Bao?" I asked before he spoke.

"We have some minor players here begging for asylum."

"Oh?"

"It's the Undersiders, milord."

That's a surprise. That's a big surprise. I supposed that thanks to Tattletale they could easily find out the Lair - not that finding us would help them - but coming here directly asking for asylum was new.

Very new.

"I'll be there," I said as I halted all shifting and sent the last of the minecarts down the tunnel before I crawled through another tunnel to the surface above.

The Shifting Chamber was an isolated place from the rest of the underground base I've built for the Dragonteeth. It had two entrances and exits: one for the railways and carts and another for my wyrm body to crawl straight up to the surface for if there was an emergency that I had to take care on the spot. It was this second tunnel that I used to reach the surface.

I shot out of the well-like vertical tunnel, flying out of it before crashing down to the reinforced floor of the warehouse. I quickly looked around and saw the Undersiders close to the entrance, which was on the opposite side of the warehouse from where this vertical tunnel was.

I reared myself up, pushing upwards to a third of my upper body into a standing position while the rest of my body slithered and coiled.

As second stage Wyrmling, I could reason, converse, and plan just as easily as I could in my human form. But it was far quicker to anger and act, so I had to choose my conversation partners well.

The Undersiders, Tattletale in particular, was not a good conversation partner.

I loomed over them as I approached, and lowered my neck and head to their eye level.

"What do the thieves want with me?" I asked them, ignoring the ten or so armed guards along the walls of the warehouse standing ready and awaiting command. "I hope you're not here to steal from me again, hmm?"

Regent seemed bored and Bitch looked frustrated as did her dogs, but Grue and Tattletale looked alarmed, looking at the Dragonteeth soldiers warily.

Grue spoke up. Good choice. "We're here to seek asylum."

"From me? Why?" I asked, dragging out my words. "I am Wyrm, not the Protectorate. On top of that, you stole from me."

"Because you are the only one who doesn't want us dead!"

"Ho? How are you so sure?"

"Because you wouldn't get anything out of it!"

I thought about it. It was true that I did want to kill these four when they first stole from me, but they had more value to me alive than dead. What little they stole from me had already been easily replaced.

"... Fair enough, but what do I get out of it?" I asked. "Your Thinker friend there might be able to tell you if she's been keeping an eye on me, but I do not involve myself much in the cape scene. If I took you all in, however, then I would have to."

Tattletale looked unnerved before she sighed. "I'd like to negotiate on behalf of my team."

I looked at her as did Grue. Before Grue could speak up, I spoke up first. "Then follow me."

Tattletale said something to Grue in shuddering breath before she followed me to the first underground level of my Lair.

It was a quick walk down a wide ramp. There was no need to go further than this. Tattletale was out of sight of the Undersiders and we were far enough that her friends wouldn't be able to listen in.

She looked at me before frowning. "You get off on lording yourself over others, don't you?" she spoke, only for her eyes to widen and she clasped her hands over her mouth.

I found her comment amusing. "Being a boss is just a side effect of what I want," I replied as I allowed myself to shrink to my human form. Even so, I still stood taller than her.

She looked up and down at me before sighing. "There's not much the Undersiders can offer you, is there?" she asked while looking down.

"Depends on what you offer."

"You don't need or want money," she spat out. "Whatever it is you and your cronies are doing underground, you can afford all of those high quality gear in the span of two months. Money was never an option." She paused before smirking. "How about information?"

"Sarah, I know things that will drive you mad."

That single statement broke her confidence on the spot. It was in the way her body shifted and her face paled. Words may flow from her lips but Tattletale was still someone who's yet to have mastered her own reaction.

"I don't know what you are talking about, and peeking through the Unwritten Rules is-"

"Something you've been doing prior to my unexpected execution of Kaiser."

She shut up then.

Her mouth opened, and her pupils became pinpricks as stress began to mount for her. I could smell it in the air, wafting from her. The fear, the shock, the surprise…

"T-There's nothing for us to offer you," she mumbled.

"If you understand that, then lea-."

"Except …. Me?"

I stopped. "Hmm?"

"T-there's something wrong with you."

I did not like the insinuation. My eyes narrowed and I changed my human hands into clawed Wyrm hands. "Speak your next words wisely, Tattletale."

Her face paled, and she gulped. "You… have urges. It's warped you and you don't even know it." I let her continue because she seemed to go going somewhere with that. "You. You are beastly? No, territorial in any form and beastly only when you are beyond a certain phase in your transformation."

Either she was digging her grave deeper or she was getting somewhere. I only have so much patience.

"You want … mates?"

… Ah, that's where she was going between offering herself and expositioning on what her powers were telling her about me.

"If you…" she gulped. There was a definite tremor to her voice and trembles in her body. "If you take the Undersiders in and promise to protect them, then I'll offer myself to you to do … whatever you want with me," she whispered.

I didn't speak for a moment, looking at her and trying to decide what to say.

Oh, by no means was I not going to accept this. I've been following what the Undersiders have done, because they were minor players in the New England cape scene, and knew that they were more or less fucked at this rate.

Thanks to Bitch provoking Hookwolf who had less inhibition with Kaiser's death, the Fenrir's Chosen were on their tail and tried to kill them at least twice before. The Pure didn't like Grue because Grue was black. The PRT/Protectorate ENE didn't like them on principle because they were parahuman thieves and thus members of society that the federal agency needed to cuff and jail. The ABB was ambivalent, but if there was one aspect that both Lung and I shared, then it was that we did not appreciate thieves and the Undersiders had little value to Lung alive.

Merchants didn't like anyone.

It left just me. Someone who wouldn't kill them, someone who wouldn't mutilate them, and someone who they stole from.

Ironic, wasn't it? The very person that they stole from was the one they came to, seeking asylum.

It felt good to show them that I was merciful and to lord it over them. I knew that it wouldn't work with the mentally stunted half of the team, but it worked just fine on the other two.

"That is a fair trade," I said as I pulled up my hand, stuck a finger out, placed it under her chin, and pulled her face up.

Her glaring and teary eyes looked at me. There was defiance in there, but there was also resigned acceptance that if she failed here, then there was a good chance that she and her team might find themselves dead in a ditch or jailed somewhere.

Tattletale - or Lisa Wilbourne as I knew her to be going around as - cared about her team. More than that, her survival was tied to theirs.

And with the likes of Regent and Bitch on the team, their survival looked dismal.

I let my finger slip off of her chin, and her head dropped back down. I walked back out to the warehouse where the rest of the Undersiders were waiting.

"Tattletale has offered to give me her services in exchange for my extension of protection over your team."

Grue looked a little incensed but his shoulders slumped. "What about our families?"

"Bring them if you must," I replied. "There's plenty of space." I looked to the commander of the warehouse security team. "Induct them as you would induct any Blues." Blue was the code word for parahuman ally. He saluted and I walked back down.

Tattletale was still standing there, but she was now wiping her face with her forearm and hands.

"Go get settled in with your teammates. You can ask my soldiers where my room is at night."

She didn't say anything and rushed passed me.

**-VB-**

"Someone new will be joining us," I warned Taylor after she came out of the bathroom, smelling nice and clean.

She sat on the edge of the bed in a lingerie I'd never seen before. If this wasn't her attempt at making herself look better, then I didn't know what was.

"... Am I not good enough?" she asked out of nowhere without looking at me.

"It has nothing to do with you," I replied. "Because after I fuck her, I'll be fucking you too."

She blushed but still refused to look at me.

Before she could speak, I crawled over to her on the bed and wrapped my arms around her. "Or if you want, I can fuck you and then fuck her. Give her a show of what I'm going to put in her."

Taylor stuttered. "N-No! That's l-l-lewd!" she shrieked.

"You already let me do lewd things to you, Taylor," I whispered as I drew her off the edge of the bed and onto my lap. I held her in place with one arm around her chest and another around her waist. I nibbled on her neck, and she shuddered, latching onto my arms in a bid to pull them off her. Except she was weak and I was not. After a while, she gave her and moaned as my waist holding hand slid down and caressed the insides of her thighs. I slid my hand from the insides of her knee towards her crotch, and at the last second, just before my fingers brushed against her opening, I pulled back.

She tilted her head back and glared at me, and I just looked down at her as intensely as my eyes could convey.

And when she had her complete focus on glaring at me, I snaked my fingers onto her clit and pinched.

Her eyes widened comically and she whimpered.

"A-Alan-!" she begged with her moans and grinded her womanhood against my hand.

"Shh. Patience, Taylor," I admonished her as I twirled and twisted her clit.

She moaned in my arms, and her arms were over her head and around my neck.

Knock knock.

'Just when this were getting started,' I thought to myself. As if alerted by the knock, Taylor quickly pried herself off of me, and scooted back to her seat at the edge of the bed.

Sighing, I slid off the bed, walked to the door, and opened it.

Standing there casually as one can be was Lisa Wilbourn in a t-shirt and nylon shorts. Her dark blonde hair fell around her face, her glossy lips were set into a neutral pose, and her freckles on the bridge of her nose was lightly dusted by the pink effecting her cheeks. She smelled nice, too.

"You certainly prepared yourself," I said as I gestured for her to enter with a wide sweep of my arm towards the inside of the room while moving to open the door wider.

"You would demand no less," she whispered as she stepped in. She stopped, noticing Taylor. She barked out a laugh. "Couldn't make a girl's first night special, could you?"

My only response was to close the door. And lock it. Her body shuddered at the sound of the lock.

I gently placed my hands on her waist and pulled myself to her, pressing my body through both of our thin clothes. She shuddered as my chest pressed into the top of her back and my throbbing dick pushed against the small of her back. Her back arched as she instinctively tried to move away, but I held her in place.

"You get to choose, Lisa," I said as I leaned to her left ear. "Example or action first?"

She gulped before she stuttered out her answer.

"E-Example!" she squeaked as she jumped away.

"Sure, but you have to watch everything from the other side of the bed," I said as I let her go and walked over to Taylor. I watched as Lisa tittered as I told her to do so, and sat there on the chair I'd prepared.

Taylor looked up at me as I loomed over her before she crawled back to the center of the bed. I got on the bed on all four and crawled on top of her, hovering over her. Taylor breathed lightly and quickly, already aroused by our previous activities.

"This is your first exhibitionism, Taylor," I crooned as I caressed the side of her face with my left hand. "Are you ready?"

Taylor glanced at Lisa nervously before looking back at me. "N-Not really…"

"Too bad," I grinned before I unhooked her lingerie, both of them, and tossed them aside. I leaned down and caught her lips on mine, and she moaned into my mouth as my wet tongue rolled into her mouth, leaving viscous spit everywhere. Her arms went around my neck and back, and I closed my eyes as I focused on her taste and heat.

My tongue snaked around her mouth, leaving nowhere untouched, before I pulled back and broke the kiss. A sticky trail bridged between our lips before pulling apart slowly. I pulled myself back, sitting with my back straight. Taylor remained flat on the bed but she stared down.

I pulled my shirt off and then my shorts, pulling out my shaft.

Taylor stared at it with a full blush, and tilted her head back while closing her eyes, waiting for me to impale her.

So I did. I didn't give Lisa any attention as I lined up my dick to Taylor's pussy with my left hand while my right pushed Taylor's thigh up, and I slid myself into Taylor's wet and hot fold.

I pushed myself in and I felt Taylor's cervix. Taylor's breath hitched and then she moaned as I wiggled my hips in place.

And then I pushed the last bits of my shaft deeper, and Taylor whimpered as she took it all in. Her legs folded up and back arched as she whimpered before falling back down to the bed as her vagina stretched to fit me.

"A-Always t-too much right off the bat," she complained.

I chuckled before pulling out half and then pushing back in slowly.

Taylor's legs wrapped around me and she gripped at the bedsheet.

"O-Oh-!" she moaned before -. "Ahh…!" as I pulled back out.

Her moans and mewls filled the air of the bedroom as I continued to pump her for all she was worth.

Somewhere along the line, I picked up the pace, and I was pounding into her missionary style. Taylor mewled and whimpered as I pistoned in and out of her rapidly, and then finally, I slammed into her and released. Her back arched and then she strained to arch further as she climaxed from my ejaculation.

Finally, her body relaxed explosively, and she dropped to the bed.

I let out a sigh of relief before pulling out of her. Moments later, cum dribbled out of her pussy. Satisfied as I was with leaving Taylor breathless, tonight was the night I took - and impregnated - Lisa.

I turned to look at her, and her breath hitched. Her face was completely red and she had a hand down and underneath her shorts.

"You don't get this kind of gentle treatment," I said to her as I walked off the bed. "Lisa," I dropped another bomb, knowing her current name. "You stole from me and then had the galls to come here. You traded yourself for your team, and I can respect that. But that just means you have to pay for all of the punishment I initially intended for all of you."

I grabbed her arm and pulled her out of the chair, and she looked at me in fear. I tossed her onto the bed, and she yelped as she landed. Then I dragged her down until her butt as hanging off the edge and her legs were on the floor. I ripped her shorts and panties off at the same time, revealing her pale ass.

"Wait, wait, y-you can't-!" she begged.

"It's too late to complain," I growled as I grabbed her waist and pushed myself into her already wet fold.

Lisa screamed as her virgin vagina stretched further than they ever stretched before. She shrieked as I pushed all the way in, and she choked as I pushed further. Her body shuddered after taking my entire length in, and I pulled out.

Then I violently slammed back in.

She screamed as I took her from behind like an animal. Her ass grew red with each thrust, and her screams grew hoarse until she was moaning and sobbing on the bed. I grabbed her hair and pulled her back, and her screams renewed even as she sobbed.

I was close…!

I let go of her hair and turned her around.

"You're going to see me impregnate you, Lisa!" I growled as I pistoned into her, and she sobbed, trying to cover her face, but I didn't give her that luxury. I grabbed her wrists and pulled them above her head, pinning them to the bed.

I picked up the pace at the last second.

She tried to say something before I slammed into her, and she choked out a sob as I cummed. I felt her tight virgin vagina coil around me as my cum painted it hot.

She moaned, her tears trickling down her cheeks, as I groaned above her.

"Now, you're a woman," I said triumphantly over the little thief. "My woman."

"T-This wasn't …! This …!" she whimpered quietly even as more tears fell.

"You bargained somethi-"

Taylor touched my shoulder, and I looked. I raised an eyebrow at her frowning face.

"Please let her off now."

… I hadn't expected this.

But then again.

I stared back down at Lisa's terrified face and resigned whimpers. Unlike Taylor who took her position with dignity, Lisa broke down the moment she took my dick.

Pathetic.

"Fine," I said as I pulled out of Lisa, and she gasped as I left a gaping vagina in her. Her vagina, like Taylor's, began to dribble my excess cum. "But you know that the situation doesn't change, Taylor."

"I know," she said, still frowning. "But … you don't have to be this forceful."

"Then she shouldn't have stolen from me and then expected me to be nice to her in bed," I replied before grabbing Taylor's arm. "I need to let off more steam."

Taylor looked torn between helping Lisa and doing what I asked, and meekly laid down on the bed next to Lisa. She gulped as she spread herself for me.

I leaned down and kissed her before plunging back into her.


	5. Chapter 5

**Taylor Hebert  
The Lair  
April 26, 2011 Noon**

"I want to do more."

She's been wanting to say it for the last week and she finally said it.

In front of the mirror.

She slumped after she looked at herself in the middle and saw how small she looked.

"Help, my ass," she grumbled even as she continued to stare. She'd just taken a hot bath in Alan's large tub and dried herself out. In that time, the fog created by the steaming bath had dissipated and left her alone with herself in the mirror.

She prepared herself, straightening her back and looking at the mirror squarely, and spoke up again. "Alan, I want to do more!" she said loudly and firmly.

Then she blushed as she realized that, depending on the context, she may sound like a hussy trying to get more of his d-d-d-dick. "Argh," she uttered unwomanly. "Why is this so _hard_?!"

She took a deep breath in and then let it out slowly. She left the bathroom shortly after, and dressed herself with the clothes she bought using Alan's money.

She was never a big spender, but Alan had insisted that she bought things for herself. While saying this, he'd also gifted her with his own selection of clothes for her.

Taylor found his gifts to be too provocative. Most of them were too skin tight or showed too much of everything. On top of that, she wasn't a model like stupid Emma was, so she knew that they wouldn't look good on her.

So she asked for money instead, and got it. With it, she went out and bought clothes that weren't … as baggy as hers were before.

Dressed in straight jeans, a green and blue t-shirt, and simple ponytail, Taylor smiled to herself before leaving their bedroom.

And then ran into Lisa, who's been waiting for her.

"What took you so long?" the much prettier woman asked her.

For a second, Taylor felt the sting of jealousy while looking at Lisa before squashing it down. Alan brought Lisa into their relationship and it had stung. She thought that Alan had grown bored of her after less than a week.

It was why she stopped him when he intended to thoroughly fuck Lisa into submission, not that that's how a girl's heart worked, but that's what he intended.

So she intervened if only to confirm if Alan had grown tired of her.

But when she called, Alan looked to her in the eyes possessively.

And when she asked, he didn't argue about how he wanted to fuck Lisa but how he wanted to punish her. When she insisted, he just told her to spread herself and she did.

Then he fucked, even going so far as to "let the new girl off easy" so that he could "mold" Taylor's pussy to his shape. It made her happy to know that Alan hadn't grown tired of her, and she had the best sex yet, ending up taking Alan for three more rounds as she begged him to give her more.

Yet still, Taylor had felt petty, jealous, and small when she compared herself to Lisa.

But Lisa helped soothe that over between them. Just like Taylor herself, Lisa found herself in a bad situation and took the choice that was disgusting and distasteful, but Lisa owned up to her choice like Taylor did. There was no rest of either of them with Alan's insatiable lust driving them to mind boggling ecstasy each night.

There was a sense of comradery, actually. They were both Alan's girls now, and Lisa confirmed that both of them were pregnant. It didn't show yet because it was way too early for anything to be shown but Lisa was a Thinker; it was her to thing to know things.

While Taylor wasn't out going as Lisa, Lisa dragged her out of her shell and routine constantly. It made her feel … normal.

And Taylor couldn't be thankful enough for that, even with these tiny stings of jealousy.

"Sorry!" she smiled widely. "Let's go then!"

**-VB-**

Taylor shuddered as she felt the sugary mango smoothie run down her throat. She licked her lips and smiled. This was her first time drinking a mango smoothie, and she rather liked it.

It just sucked that the only place serving what Lisa called "passable" mango smoothie was in the Downtown and cost her six dollars for sixteen ounces.

It was too expensive, and products like it was the reason why Taylor never really came to Downtown before. But Lisa had expensive taste that only the Downtown could satisfy.

So here they were after two hours of shopping, eager on Lisa's part and reluctant on her part, enjoying a cool drink after their hectic activity.

Taylor knew that shopping could be exhausting and tiring from the earliest memories of the good Emma she had, but it was one thing to remember and another to feel it.

She looked up and saw Lisa just happily lounging on the chair across from her on the small table they occupied at the corner of the store, far away from the rest of the customers that this cafe served.

Lisa noticed her look and met her stare, and Taylor couldn't help but wonder how Lisa got involved with Alan.

"So…" she started out. "How did you get involved with Alan?" she asked. She knew that Lisa was involved in stealing something from Alan, and he had been very adamant about punishing Lisa for it or at least punishing her for the four people's worth that Lisa took on for the sake of her team.

Lisa frowned lightly before sighing. "It's complicated."

Taylor wanted to stop right there but she also wanted to know.

"You really want to know, huh?"

Jolting in her seat, Taylor looked up to see Lisa's resigned yet fox-like grin.

"Uh… uh, yes?" Was she that easy to read?

"You are that easy to read." Argh. "I am - no, was - a member of the Undersiders, a villain group of teenage capes," she began quietly. "I was not the leader but I was the Thinker of the group and we had a secret boss that only I got to contact."

"A secret boss?"

"Yup. Coil."

Taylor frowned. "I don't remember them."

"You wouldn't. Coil is like a snake; he likes to keep himself low profile. No one's even sure he has powers. No one outside of myself, anyway."

"And?"

"Well, before you got involved with Alan, Coil wanted the Undersiders to steal from Wyrm. To gauge his reaction, so to speak."

Taylor looked at her incredulously. "You… stole from him."

"Yes. It was stupid. I thought I had it all figured out. Found out all of the guards' shifts, shift change, and everything."

"Except you weren't."

"Nope. And we barely got away and that's because Alan stopped… to talk to you."

Taylor felt her stomach drop. "... You were the ones that Alan was chasing?" she asked hoarsely. "I-I thought he was going to kill children."

Lisa looked apologetic. "We didn't know you were there. We were just trying to get out of the Docks as soon as possible. I'm sorry."

Taylor looked down.

It hurt to know that the second person she was getting used to hang out with was also the cause of Taylor's own situation with Alan.

She took a deep breath in and let it out. She opened her mouth to speak but nothing came out. She closed her mouth and her lips quivered.

Lisa quickly came around the table and hugged her.

"I'm sorry. I really didn't know you were there."

She wanted to cry.

It felt like she was facing Emma all over again, but at least Lisa was apologizing. Maybe that's what made it worse? Like, she was fated to be stabbed in the back again and again?

She pushed Lisa aside, and saw the hurt on the blonde's face. "I… I need some time alone," she said as she stood up, grabbing her bags.

Lisa gulped, looking sad but resigned. "I'm sorry," she repeated.

"I guess," Taylor said as she walked out of the cafe.

She walked and walked.

The implication that Lisa and her former team was responsible for her first night's failure, the subsequent loss of her virginity to a stranger, and her current situation rocked Taylor's mind. What little common ground she had found with Lisa was tainted by the fact that LISA WAS RESPONSIBLE.

The pain, the fear, and the loss of her freedom was THEIR FAULT!

Tears gathered at the edge of her vision and she gritted her teeth.

She didn't know what to think, she didn't know what to feel, and that only made her angrier and angrier.

"Taylor!"

She stopped and looked over her shoulder. Lisa was running to her without any of the shopping bags. Taylor waited, hoping that she had something to say that would make her feel less shitty about … everything. That it wasn't another sorry like her dad.

"What?" she spat out harsher than she meant.

Lisa looked winded.

"Lisa, that wasn't even half a mile," she deadpanned.

Lisa glared at her. "Shut it, you marathon junkie," she wheezed, using her Thinker power to mention Taylor's running exercise (an exercise that was being put to the side because Taylor was too goddamn sore and tired from being used all night).

And Taylor felt her lips quirk.

Lisa gathered herself - and Taylor noted through her bugs that there were two distinct groups of people following them in vans, one group was the Dragonteeth soldiers - she liked to call them dragonling in her head - Alan assigned them and the other was unknown - and straightened herself. Only, when Lisa saw her, her face paled.

"We have to go."

"What?"

Lisa grabbed her by the wrist and ran towards the direction of the dragonling. Then she used her free hand to pull out her cellphone and call. "This is Lisa! Coil is onto us!"

And just like that, Taylor saw the second group speed towards them.

Coil.

The cause for the Undersiders attacking Wyrm, which led to her loss of freedom.

Taylor's eyes narrowed.

'He's the cause of everything,' she thought angrily. Without much more thought into it, she gathered all of the insects in the area and swarmed them down upon the second van speeding towards them.

Lisa looked over her shoulder at her, and grinned. "Good job. That should delay them," she said as she gasped for breath. Just then, another van came around the corner at full speed. This van had the dragonling. They came to a stop less than a hundred yards from them, and the side doors opened.

"Get in!" one of the dragonling shouted as another stepped out with an assault rifle. The bystanders saw them and screamed, running away.

While this happened, the other van fought against the bugs swarming into the car, splattering on the windows, and clogging up the engine and finer machineries.

As she and Lisa got into the van and the assault weapon bearing dragonling fired a few shots into the swerving and screeching van of the unknowns before jumping into the assistant's seat, she found herself staring at the now closed door in shock.

"-lor, Taylor!"

She jolted out of her shock and stared at worried Lisa, who had been shaking her.

"W-What just happened?" she asked hoarsely.

"That was Coil's mercenaries," Lisa spat. "Son of a bitch."

Taylor sat there with wide eyes.

"H-He goes after people in their civilian identity…?" she asked hoarsely.

"It wouldn't be the first time he did it," her friend replied.

"W-We have to stop him. My dad-!"

"We have to ask Alan."

Both of them gulped. "Y-Yeah," Taylor finally said. "He'll take it. He'll take care of Coil for us."

They stayed quiet until they were back in the Lair, safe and sound. That night, they told Alan what happened.

They never saw him so quiet yet everyone in the Lair, from the two of them to the security guards who'd seen them come in shaken from a van with holes in them, knew that a shitstorm was about to hit the bay.

**-VB-**

**Director Emily Piggot  
PRT ENE Headquarters, Downtown, Brockton Bay  
April 27, 2011 Morning**

"Director, we have a call from a man claiming to represent the Dragonteeth. He says it's urgent."

She'd been doing paperwork when the call came. She was half tempted to not take the call, but there was no need to antagonize Wyrm's little pet project.

Not when there was a pressure from the mayor's office to help him legitimize the dubiously law breaking organization.

"Alright, patch them through to me on 2," she said before picking up her office phone. Within seconds, she heard a voice on the other side.

"Is this Director Piggot of PRT ENE?"

"It is."

"Greetings. My name is Bao, and I am Lord Wyrm's Steward."

"You mean you are a criminal."

"If you mean that I am a criminal in the same sense as one is a criminal in China fighting for the freedom of his people, then yes. I fight against the unjust laws discriminating parahumans in the USA. But I didn't call to argue with you regarding the stupidity of legislator catering to the fears of the common man incapable of looking beyond the immediate."

"Then?" she asked testily.

"Yesterday, parahuman known as Coil struck out against capes that are a part of our organization. Capes who had been walking around in their civilian identity. Capes who carry our lord's future children."

… God. FUCKING. Dammit.

"So I am here to deliver a warning not just to you but the federal government in general. Parahuman known as Coil was once a member of the PRT under the name of Thomas Calvert-"

She should have shot the bastard at Ellisburg. "- and elements of the federal government, specifically the PRT and the Protectorate, have known about his existence as a parahuman for some time. However, that neutrality can no longer be kept because Coil has assaulted Lord Wyrm's families. Lord Wyrm intends to put an end to Coil today. I suppose he will be striking at Downtown, which is where Coil's hidden base is, according to my lord."

"Are you threatening the government, Mr. Bao?"

"A threat implies future action. Lord Wyrm is already acting."

Emily growled. "He won't get away with this!"

"No. He won't. The question comes whether or not you and the government can afford antagonizing my lord. Good day."

She slammed the phone down, ending the call. Then she picked it back up while dialing the emergency number to Armsmaster.

"We have an emergency. Wyrm's gone on a rampage over Coil breaking the Unwritten Rule. I need all of the Protectorate out into the Downtown!" Then she called her offices within the PRT ENE for a Master/Stranger protocol on Thomas Calvert if he was within the building in his usual role as consultant.

There was an explosion deep within the Downtown, and Emily saw an eight story building collapse.

Finally, she called the office of the Chief Director of PRT to report Wyrm's rampage.


	6. Chapter 6

_Previously on Wyrm Lord…_

"_Are you threatening the government, Mr. Bao?"_

"_A threat implies future action. Lord Wyrm is already acting."_

_Emily growled. "He won't get away with this!"_

"_No. He won't. The question comes whether or not you and the government can afford antagonizing my lord. Good day."_

**-VB-**

**Wyrm**

**April 27, 2011**

The world around me shook as my casual flick of my tail destroyed an entire section of the building's wall as I dug my way down to Coil's hidden base. The earth and the rocks moved out of my way as I willed them to, and I dove deeper and deeper as I pushed myself further down. Through the vibrations in the earth, I heard the villain's base getting ready for my presence as were the capes within it.

Yes, I knew that Coil had already hired capes but so what? With the exception of Labyrinth in this city, no one could harm me!

My elongated snout hit concrete and burst through.

As my head broke through the secret base's concrete ceiling and landed on the concrete floor, I realized that the corridor here was too small.

How the hell was I supposed to fit into a corridor that was only nine feet across and high when I was already ten feet in diameter?

Growling in irritation, I turned my attention to the people who appeared in my vision. They were Coil's mercenaries wielding the laser tinkertech weapons.

"Shoot!" one of them shouted.

I snorted before I pushed the earth above them downward. Pillars no thicker than one foot across broke through the ceiling and struck the top of the heads of the mercenaries, dazing them. Then I opened my mouth and breathed my dragon fire. Yellow-red fire burst forward and I heard the screams of the mercenaries as they were roasted on the spot.

I paid them no more attention and instead paid attention to the vibrations of the earth.

I knew that at this point in the timeline that Coil was supposed to have the Travelers with him in his base. Of them, the ones I was interested in was Noelle and Sundancer. The former I had to kill to prevent her from causing issue. By extension, I had to kill Trickster because he was a Simurgh bomb. Sundancer was tricky. She was powerful, only weaker than me in my current second stage wyrmling form and Labyrinth.

At the same time, I wanted her as my woman too. A powerful woman cape? It was like a fire to my dragon instinct.

Of course, I was also here to kill Coil as well.

I pushed forward, breaking the corridor as I forced myself to travel through the hallways of his secret base. I roared gleefully as I grew even bigger and ran over mercenaries who were too slow to flee. I felt their bodies get crushed beneath my scales while some had the misfortune of being in front of my open maw.

As I grew, my senses and control over the elements grew as well.

And it was with this newly regained heightened sense that I saw Noelle.

I wasted no time.

I broke through the concrete and the earth and plowed to her. I watched as several individuals made their way to the giant weight on the earth, which had to be Noelle. I pushed myself faster and broke down to the corridor between Noelle's containment chamber and where the Travelers were.

Oh, they had been close. If they had started this run only ten seconds earlier, then they would have been at the containment chamber's entrance.

I didn't even speak. I had no reason nor the capacity to. All I saw was future danger to me and mine in the form of the tophat wearing Trickster, and I blasted fire.

The red and black wearing Sundancer jumped forward and stopped the fire.

I growled, and she froze, leaving me to use earth to crush Trickster. Several pillars of rocks burst through the walls and ceilings of the corridor and slammed down onto Trickster, and I watched gleefully as the man twitched before falling silent.

Humans were so fragile~.

Sundancer whirled around, saw Trickster's dead body between pillars of stones, and turned back to me. She shouted and created suns…

And just as she did to mine, I canceled her suns out.

She stood there with an arm outstretched but without any effect. Frozen in horror, she looked at me before slowly backing away.

I let her and her companions go. I had a bigger target to worry about. I turned around, breaking the walls of the corridor as I faced the blast doors between Noelle and myself.

The containment blast doors bulged outward as Noelle slammed into it.

I didn't care.

I bellowed out a continuous stream of fire towards the blast door, and the door melted away. Something screamed on the other side before that too died down.

I grinned triumphantly when I smelled cooked pork.

With Noelle and Trickster dead, I only had one target left. My reptilian need to remove a threat spurred me onward even when I wasn't thinking properly. I destroyed every exit. I destroyed every volatile substance in the base.

It wasn't long until I found him. I cornered him in his office whose escape I'd cut off. It was just large enough for me to move my head around without hitting the walls.

He screamed with his back to the wall while I roared at him. He shot at me with a gun but they may as well have been pebbles for all they did. He said things that my wyrm mind didn't understand anymore.

That was alright.

I came here to kill him anyways.

Still roaring, I dove forward and devoured the snake along with his office desk and chair.

There could be only one underground snake in this city, after all.

… Gammy.

With my job done, I left the scene.

-VB-

**Armsmaster**

When he got there, it was just in time to see Wyrm crawling out of the ruined building. Despite the dust and rubble surrounding them, Wyrm looked no worse for wear besides the blood leaking out of his mouth.

Blood that wasn't his if the tattered clothes stuck between his teeth was any indication.

"Wyrm, surrender yourself to the authority-!" he began.

Wyrm ignored him and began to leave.

Seeing as Wyrm was not reacting to him, Armsmaster decided to strike. With his improved but incomplete Nanothorn, he should be able to damage-!

Even before he could land a blow, he saw something from the side and dodged as his combat program screamed at him to. It was still too late. Having been too focused on striking Wyrm's elongated body, he forgot that the dragon had tail.

The tail came whipping around, and clipped him in the shoulder. He was sent sprawling from the force of the blow. The thrusters on his powered armor came online and quickly righted him before he could tumble through the air, and he performed a three-point landing.

Then he froze as he realized that Wyrm was staring at him, no longer leaving the scene.

"Wyrm-!"

Two dozen "missiles" of light appeared above Wyrm's draconic head, and Armsmaster shut up. He'd seen those missiles before.

In the video of the Battle of Canberra.

Wyrm was threatening him. If he released those, then they would either hit him or the area around him, which was the Downtown.

If they hit him, then he was dead. He'd seen the destructive powers and there were too many of them for his powered armor to tank.

If they didn't hit him, then the entire Downtown area around him would be devastated. If Wyrm tactically struck one building with each of those missiles, then the casualties would be devastating, nevermind the disruption of commerce and perceived safety of the Downtown area surrounding the PRT ENE headquarters.

Despite the anger and frustration he felt, he had to let Wyrm go. The devastation wasn't worth it.

"You know that you can't get away with this," he bit out.

Wyrm shrunk a little. An oddity. His helmet's video recorded this. Instead of the fifteen feet thick and nearly two hundred feet long giant dragon, he was a much more manageable and smaller thirty feet long and eight feet thick.

"There is nothing for me to flee from," Wyrm replied with a mocking snort. "You are too weak to punish me."

Armsmaster really wanted to fight Wyrm, but he didn't become a Protectorate leader on his Tinkering ability alone.

"The Triumvirate-"

"Are weaker than me. Unless you intend to destroy this entire city with me in one strike so powerful that would see me destroyed in an instant, you can't," Wyrm replied before turning away. "Just pray that I don't strike down more of the villains you were responsible for in the first place."

Wyrm slithered away before disappearing between the alleys.

-VB-

**Chief Director Rebecca Costa-Brown**

"Leave him alone," she told Director Piggot.

Piggot looked incensed by the order. Honestly, she had every right to be but Wyrm was … too valuable to lose on a petty skirmish like this. He was too valuable for the final battle.

Coil had thrown his die, and he'd be dead for it.

"Chief Director, we have a villain destroying buildings-" Piggot started.

"But not cities," Rebecca cut her off. "Did you know that Watchdog has a file on him?" she changed the subject conversationally. "It's actually because Wyrm is a contributor to the economy, unlike the rest of the villains and their criminal organizations in your city."

Piggot looked incredulous.

"That is ridiculous."

"But it's true," she replied. "For example, in the two months that he's been there - and the one and a half month period of he set up his base in your city - there has been a lot of money that has been exchanged between an unknown underground organization and mineral markets in Boston."

Piggot stared blankly before she looked horrified. "He's engaging in mining in my city…?!"

Rebecca actually had the same reaction.

Mining was not a pretty process. It scarred the land, there was no long term prosperity for towns that lived off of it, and left toxic materials behind.

"Indeed, but he has produced none of the toxic wastes of normal mines for the quantity of palladium, copper, and gold he brought out of the earth."

Piggot's face blanked at the mention of the mineral. She should know, because she had two Tinkers in her Protectorate department.

"Wait, you mean he's the one who's responsible for bringing down the prices of …?"

"Of minerals used in electronics? Like those our Tinkers need? Yes. I intend to order the Boston branch to start buying it directly from them."

"Ma'am, they're villains!"

Rebecca knew that the idea of the government buying from villains was distasteful, but buying the conductor minerals from Wyrm's "Dragonteeth" would decrease the national Protectorate expenditure by one percent. It was significant enough that she was willing to ignore it for now.

"Outside of Wyrm's own attack and murder of Kaiser, Coil, and their criminal minions, he's been a help to the New England economy. Many dangerous homeless in your city have been hired off the streets while Boston is enjoying a resurgence of the refinery industry. While we won't be thanking him for those, we can keep him contained in your city at the least."

Piggot looked like she was about to blow a gasket at the idea.

Sucked to be her, eh?

"Just send Wyrm a warning, Director Piggot. We can only tolerate so much drama at once before we must act on it."

"Yes, ma'am," the PRT ENE director bit out before the connection severed.

Rebecca leaned back into her comfortable leather chair with a huff. It wasn't that she didn't understand Piggot's situation. Wyrm's latest rampage was sure to cause PRT ENE a lot of headaches. Everything from PR to patrol adjustments would be affected.

She wrote a note on the side.

'Add 5% additional to PRT ENE budget.' It wouldn't affect the Cauldron's experiment in the city.

She and others in Cauldron have talked about Wyrm. Number Man ranked him higher than all of the Triumvirate and Contessa's Path encouraged the fostering of his organization.

Because they intended to push volatile villains against him like they had done to Coil. With this conflict, they learned that Wyrm's ability to change his size was extremely flexible.

This led Cauldron to the next question: just how far could he grow in one go?


	7. Chapter 7

_Thank you to my Pat-reons: Kejmur, Alexander S, and DefineitlyNotDio_

**-VB-**

**Views on Wyrm's presence in Brockton Bay**  
_New Hampshire State Government_ \- Troubling. The federal government should do something.  
_Boston_ \- Hoping that Wyrm would come fight for any Endbringer battle that is near their area.  
_New York City_ \- Another lizard goes to the shit hole. So what? We have bigger problems here. Namely, the Butcher, Killzalot, Vandal Viking...  
_PRT National_ \- As long as we can use him in future Endbringer fights, we don't care.  
_PRT ENE_ \- Please don't explode, please don't explode, please don't explode, please don't explode... Why isn't the PRT National giving us backup?!

**-VB-**

**Lisa**

**April 28, 2011**

Lisa didn't know what to feel. She realized that her life was not just her own and there were those who sought to control her for one reason or another. Her parents wanted a perfect child and then they saw a perfect tool. Coil wanted an expendable Thinker.

Wyrm...

What does he want with me?

[Alan wants you to bear him a lot of children, but he worries that you don't have wide enough birthing hips].

She felt her cheek twitch. Well, he wanted… that.

[Alan's power does not drive towards conflict but rather procreation. With his power level, it is unlikely that he will die from combat, leaving you to be under his protection and use for a long time to come].

Was this all there was to her life now? Was she going to be some beast's broodmare until she couldn't birth anymore babies? Was she living in the medieval ages or something?

… She could do worse, even if she hated her situation right now.

Lisa turned her head on the bed to look at the clock on the nightstand. The clock read 7:44 a.m. despite the dim light permeating the entirety of Alan's bedroom. Being this far underground, there was no natural light that came to them, so Lisa's only source of telling time remained with clocks that were throughout the base.

She peeked at Alan and Taylor. Despite the fact that Taylor herself had been forced into this situation, Lisa learned that being in this relationship had actually helped her more than it had harmed her. Her power had whispered into her ear about the loneliness and pain Taylor had gone through.

Alan smoothed those pains over by listening to her, hugging her, and fucking her. The pleasure of sex, the soothing words, and the promise of family was enough for lonely and isolated Taylor to give her all to Alan. Despite her inner and outward disagreement with many things Alan did, Taylor was …

Lisa hesitated to say love, but the way Taylor viewed and acted around Alan was closer to devotion found in love than mindless agreements seen in crushes.

Oh, Lisa knew what Taylor had been doing before they went out the day before yesterday. Taylor wanted to help Alan in her own way, which showed exactly how much the girl was infatuated with Alan.

It showed just how lonely and tired Taylor had been.

Lisa just wished that Alan would be nice to her as he was to Taylor, but she also knew why he wasn't. As far as Alan was concerned, Lisa Wilbourn, aka formerly Tattletale, was a thief. She wasn't his woman like Taylor was; she was a thief and he was punishing her for four person's worth.

Whatever a four person's worth of punishment was.

Seeing as Taylor and Alan were both asleep and she wanted out, Lisa slipped out of the bed, touching down on the woolen carpet surrounding the bed. Her toes curled up in the white wool. She shivered a little before she realized that she needed to use the bathroom.

She glanced at Taylor and Alan again.

[He is happy with the warmth of his women].

[She is happy with being wanted and loved. As it is, she will not get what she wants long-term].

Lisa snorted. She doubted that Alan "loved" either of them, but he was possessive.

She made her way to the bathroom, shivering as her toes touched the smooth stone floor, and slowly opened the door. Thankfully, the well-oiled hinges made no sound. She pulled the toilet seat down, and - naked as she was, there was no need to pull anything down - she sat down.

Shivering in the cold, she looked around the bathroom. Maybe it was a good idea to take a bath. It was a big place with dip-in tubs at least fifteen yards in all directions -

[Alan fucked Taylor last night in the tub with her laying down on the edge of the pool].

-with stairs and hand-rails, so….

Damn it, power…

Regardless, she took to the bath after relieving herself. She turned on the hot water and dipped in.

As she let her sore body relax in the therapeutic heat of the hot bath, Lisa wondered about what she was going to do. Just because she would be made into someone's broodmare didn't mean that she wanted to do just that.

No, she wasn't that kind of a person. She would rather run than wallow, but running was not an option.

What could she do? If Alan's proclivity held, then Lisa might find herself pregnant for a very long time, which meant any kind of vigorous activity was not an option. Maybe some kind of a business then? Not a shop or anything like that, but something more mental and financial…

[This power is great at ruining people's lives].

She let out a sigh of frustration. Guess human interaction was also a no-go.

She needed to actually think about this for some time. Planning was not her power's forte.

'Maybe personnel qualification verification? My power would be great at it.' Then she frowned as she realized a critical variable. 'But what if the PRT decides to come after Alan? Wouldn't anything I do be at risk?' she asked herself. 'Something to ask Alan about,' she sighed again. 'God, I hate having to do things with someone else as the center of my activities.'

-VB-

After dressing herself up with casual clothes and not a mask, Lisa explored to deepen her insight into the Lair. She might need it if bad things happened and running became the only option.

The Lair of the Dragonteeth was the base for Wyrm, who was the leader of the Dragonteeth. She passed by a doorway in the grey smooth stone and white painted hallway, and saw a cafeteria on the other side of it.

[The cafeteria is currently serving curry. The soldiers used to homeless, wasted, degenerates, leftovers, scapegoats-]

She cut her own power off.

One of the soldiers saw her as he left the cafeteria. He blinked once before he paled.

[Is terrified].

… huh?

[He is twisting his legs to put his maximum thrusting force into the ground. Will run].

And he ran.

The noise of someone running caught the attention of the rest of the well-trained, well-fed, and well-armored and armed Dragonteeth soldiers in the cafeteria. They turned towards her, but they didn't have the same reaction as the first guy did.

[They are amused by the new guy's reaction. They are aware that you are cape/woman of Wyrm. They do not fear you like the first guy did].

"So.. what was that about?" she asked out loud.

"Mikey's new, and he's afraid of capes," a facial scarred, bald man spoke up from the table closest to the doorway. He wore combat uniform of the active Dragonteeth soldiers, and had the insignia of three teeth sewn on his vest.

[Three teeth may be a denotation of rank. Most soldiers in the cafeteria have two teeth or one].

Seeing as he seemed to know something that she didn't, she walked over to his table and sat down across from him.

"Name's Low," he said.

"My name is Lisa," she replied. "Nice to meet you."

"Pleasure to meet you, too, dragon lady."

[Nickname among the soldiers. They are aware of your status as a member of Alan's new harem].

"Your power at work?" he asked abruptly.

She didn't show her startlement at the sudden question. "It is," she replied. "So about Mikey…?"

"Got kicked out of the military because someone accused him of pedophilia."

She blinked.

[Intentionally used the word 'accused' instead of 'convicted.']

"So what happened?"

"They forced him out without dishonorably discharging him. They had no evidence except some really trusted guy's words, ya see."

She grimaced.

[Rival for someone's love. Trusted guy was Mikey's superior, and used the accusation to distance Mikey from his love and family. Ruined Mikey-]

"But he's one of us now. We trust that he wasn't. In fact, he has a little phobia cuz of what happened."

[Scars on Mikey's face is that of a war veteran. He has been deployed to numerous theaters of war, ranging from urban to guerilla. The betrayal he felt from his own military was the only real scar he carries].

She winced. She tried not to glance around, leaving her to see only Low.

[Sold one of his kidneys to pay off his daughter's chemotherapy. She did not make it out.]

"You're seeing people like Mikey everywhere, aren't you?" he asked me.

Even though she didn't want to, she looked around.

[Betrayed-]

[Scorned-]

[Out of her control-]

[Begging-]

Her grimaced deepened as she shut her power out and lowered her head.

"Your man has good instinct, or Thinker power whichever," Low said with a sigh. "He can sniff out people like a goddamn dog when he's a dragon."

Lisa looked back up, and her power was quick to take advantage of her distraction.

[Among the first five to be recruited by Alan. Is reminiscing the event. His head tilted slightly up and posture aimed above suggests that Alan met from above, most likely in dragon form].

"He recruited the five of you personally?"

Low looked at her in surprise. "You must be a good Thinker if you can tell all of that from just this," he said as he gestured to himself. "But yeah. Don't know how he got background checking done, but he did it. Considering what the boss does, someone got paid with a shit ton of gold."

Lisa blinked. "Gold?"

Low startled in his seat. "Ah, I shouldn't have said that."

[Being paid in gold denotes an ability to obtain gold in large quantities. A single kilogram of gold is worth 23,000 USD. Low used the word "ton" rather than "bar," which is the common denomination of gold trade above a certain value]. A pause. [Alan has shown the ability to manipulate concrete, steel, and earth. The base is underground.]

A pause even as Lisa herself widened her eyes in realization.

[The Lair is not just a base for the Dragonteeth soldiers and Alan; it is a mine].

"Well, damn," she muttered. "So that's how he operates, huh?"

Low sighed. "Well, I spilled the beans in front of the Thinker. Lord Wyrm is not going to be happy."

'"Lord"?' she thought, rolling that word in her mind.

[Low is using the word out of respect. Still unused to saying the word. Someone else started the use of the word. Many of them respect Alan for helping them. Some of them are only using Alan as refuge until they leave. A few want to worship Alan].

"... Thank you, I guess," she said as she stood up. "I guess I'll get-"

That got a reaction out of some of the soldiers. The select few, those who her power had pegged as wannabe cultists for Alan, quickly ran around the cafeteria, gathering the best foods before presenting it to her.

They bootlicked as they "eased" her into a seat at the center of the cafeteria.

Lisa sat there, ruminating on everything she learned so far even as she looked down at admittedly delicious looking food.

[Meant to be cafeteria food. Alan made sure that the food, no matter the portion, was filling and varied to prevent sensory-specific satiety while providing maximum nutrients].

Lisa's jaws dropped as she found herself staring at a plate of food that had to be worth around thirty dollars.

Her head shot up and she looked around.

She began to eat.

All of the foods that were still being eaten by the soldiers were of similar quality, just slightly worse; Alan's worshippers really did get her the best they could.

[They are worried about the health of the baby growing inside you].

She bit her bottom lip.

Not her. The baby Alan put in her.

Anger bubbled in her.

She quickly ate her portion and left the cafeteria, barely able to hide her tears just until she left the place filled with _his _soldiers.

It was the injustice of the world. No one cared for _her_, just what she could do for them.

She locked herself in her private room and seethed.

She didn't skip lunch, however. As much as it would have caused no end to her wardens' worries because of the new baby no bigger than her thumb inside of her, she didn't think that punishing her baby for what others did to her was cruel and petty.

-VB-

Later that night, someone knocked on her door.

[Heavy knocking despite not wanting to do so].

She opened the door… and came face to face with Alan. Her eyes widened and she stumbled back as Alan pushed his way into her room.

"W-What are you doing here?" she asked him.

"I'm checking on my woman," he replied. "That and I want to sleep with you tonight. Taylor said she wants to try something."

[Was reluctant to let Taylor go. Assigned a squad of his Dragonteeth to Taylor. Dragonteeth loyal to him, so they were loyal to Taylor. Does not like sleeping alone. Does not intend to have rough sex with you].

She didn't gulp but it was a close thing. He looked down at her.

[Wants to rut you on the spot and make you scream his name].

This time, Lisa couldn't help but shiver and cover herself.

[Has a screwed up morality. His power affects his judgement heavily. Not too different from Bitch except he has higher capacity for human social life. Marriage, while he understands it, is foreign to him in this state. He has "mates," "children," "subjects," and "enemies." All those outside of those categories are outside his concern].

She supposed she knew what category she fell under…

"So you're going to nail me tonight because Taylor's gone, huh?" she asked with a small sneer. "Your basic bitch is gone, so you came to fuck your second bitch."

He snorted. [Not offended. You spoke the truth. Knows that you will be speaking an entirely different tune when he has you under him]. "Yes."

She frowned as she worked up her courage to say what she really wanted to say. "Well, I don't want to have sex," she replied defiantly. "Y-You already punished me, impregnated me, so I don't want it."

[Is stunned]. He looked at her with wide eyes for a second before chortling. [Is amused].

Thanks, Captain Obvious.

[Will lunge].

Her eyes widened and she tried to dodge, but she couldn't. He moved so fast that she didn't catch the first second of his action.

But when she found herself pinned down, she knew she was powerless against him.

"Alright," he said while he hovered over her, keeping her wrists pinned to the bed while he hovered over her. "I'll make you want it, then."

She squirmed and jerked, but he was too strong.

"Goddamn Brute!" she screamed. Her eyes moistened and tears sprung up as he brought her wrists together and freed one of his hands. With that free hand, he grabbed the hem of her pants and pulled them down, not off. "N-No, I d-don't want it…!" she whimpered as his hand pulled her white panty aside.

Then his fingers slid into her.

Even as she whimpered in despair, her lips parted and she moaned as his long fingers pushed into her fold. His thumb pressed against her clit and vibrated quickly, and she hiccups and whimpers were replaced by moans. Her legs curled up against his arm but he was too strong.

Finally, he pistoned with his hand into her. She screamed as her body came closer and closer to climax, and with arching her back, she climaxed.

But Alan didn't stop.

He kept pumping her at the same speed.

Her vision grew hazy, tears spilled, and her body begged for more.

She moaned as she climaxed again.

Still pinning her down, he leaned down to her ear, and she didn't pull away. "Let me make you feel better, Lisa. Just give in. Accept your new place in life."

In a normal society, words like that would have sparked a feminist backlash so powerful, it would have swept the world.

But she didn't live in a normal society. She lived in a world bound to the rule of strength… and she was weak.

Her lips parted as she panted. Alan continued relentlessly in the absence of an answer, and she stubbornly refused. She climaxed again and laid there shuddering in the afterglow of the forced sexual high.

He finally released her wrists, but she was too exhausted.

"Just give in…" he whispered.

He was like the devil. He brought her down, whispered the sweetness of resignation, and prepared to give her a life she didn't want.

Tears continued to roll down her eyes.

'But then again, it's not like I can escape,' she thought. She remembered the loyalty his soldiers felt towards him. Even if she subverted one, there were still hundreds who would literally lose an arm and a leg to see Alan's will done.

Escape was a daydream.

'Was this what I was destined for?' she thought to herself as she moaned quietly as Alan continued to pump her with his finger. 'To be someone's slave?'

A traitorous corner of her mind sprung up. 'Everyone is someone's slave, just like I am to the idea of freedom. What's so bad about giving up? He's rich, and all he wants is for her to pump out babies. There's a lot more freedom between what he wants. He can literally print money, if he wants to.'

Tired, resigned, and under self-deception, Lisa uttered the words.

"Okay," she said quietly.

Alan kissed her on the cheek, spread her legs, and fucked her.

Before she lost the fight to not lose herself to the pleasure, she looked at the clock.

She lasted barely an hour before she gave into him.

She felt pathetic.


	8. Chapter 8

**Taylor **

**May 6, 2011**

Pregnant.

A teenage mom.

That's what she was going to become.

Taylor Hebert didn't know what to feel about that.

When she went out the first night as a cape, she expected to start a journey that would lead to her being a hero. She believed that she would be beloved by the people for the work of justice she would

She wouldn't be the victim of bullies; she would have been a _hero_.

Yet here she was. Instead of becoming a hero or die trying, she surrendered to the first big bad guy who caught her (admittedly, he was the strongest cape in the city), got herself turned into his sex toy, and then became pregnant with his baby.

Taylor stared at a family walking out of a family restaurant. As she stared at them for a little more, she couldn't help but notice how happy they were. They reminded her of her family before her mom's death.

She looked down at herself and gently caressed her stomach, despite the fact that there was not a single physical evidence of her pregnancy showing up.

Honestly, she wanted a family. She didn't want to go back to being uncertain about … things.

She sighed.

"What's wrong?"

He looked up and saw a blonde girl. It wasn't Lisa; Alan told her that he wanted to have some extended fun with Lisa, so it couldn't be her. Besides, Lisa had bits of freckles on the bridge of her nose and this girl didn't. This girl had curly and wavy hair. It was a little bit on the side of messy and unkempt without being overly so.

She was awfully familiar, though…

"Just… thinking," she replied. "Complicated things."

The girl looked over her before shrugging. "Okay. I don't know what you're going through, so I can't help you there."

"Is helping people your thing?" Talyor asked.

"I wish it was," the girl snorted. "So what's the problem?" she asked as she sat down next to her on the bench.

Taylor looked at her for a second. She wasn't going to be blurting out anything sensitive, so why not?

"I got myself involved with someone who's … really big."

The girl blinked. "Like what?"

"... Stuff."

The girl sighed, a little aggravated by her lack of an answer. "I guess you don't want to talk about it to strangers. So the issue is big?"

Taylor nodded.

"Then why not break the problem down to smaller bits and handle it from there?"

She looked up.

"How do I handle pregnancy like that?" she asked, a little bit more bitterly than how she wanted to say it.

The girl looked surprised. "You don't look any older than eighteen."

Taylor didn't want to talk about it anymore. She stood up to leave.

"You can always start by thinking about whether or not you want the baby," the girl said just before Taylor took off.

-VB-

During the entire duration of her trip back to the Lair, Taylor began to question the very answer the strange blonde girl had thrown at her.

'Did I want the baby?' That thought reverberated inside her mind repeatedly.

As she murmured greetings to the well-disguised Dragonteeth soldiers guarding the perimeter of the warehouses under Alan's control and then stepped into the elevator that would take her down to the deeper layers of the compound, Taylor really thought about it.

She knew intellectually that a baby was a great deal of work. Was she ready for that? She couldn't just leave or do things she wanted, because once she gave birth to this baby, then she would be responsible to them.

Distracted by her thoughts, she somehow made her way to her and Alan's bedroom and opened the doors-.

-and saw Alan's back as he pounded into Lisa.

Maybe it was the shock of walking into someone having sex - which was very different from watching it from the start - but whatever thoughts she had just poffed away as she listened to the carnal grunts and moans of pleasure eminating from the two of them.

Lisa's cries of ecstasy echoed inside Alan's bedrock bedroom, and Taylor couldn't help but shiver.

It wasn't long after she entered the bedroom, a little shocked about having walked in on Alan fucking Lisa, that Lisa screeched and then slumped down on the bed.

Thankfully, there weren't many bugs down here, so she didn't need to see Alan's satisfaction as he fucked another woman or Lisa's resigned bliss in being used.

Taylor felt jealousy as she took in this scene. She didn't want to share or want Alan to touch another woman, but what could she do? Alan wouldn't stop just because she asked. He was more likely to go out and collect more women anyway…

So what could she do?

"O-Oh, Taylor."

Taylor jolted on the spot and looked at Lisa, who'd called out to her. Lisa looked tired with sweat dripping from every inch of her body. There was also more than a few white ejaculates on her face and chest. It was just evience that Alan hadn't let Lisa rest at all.

Taylor felt bad for Lisa for a moment.

"C-Can you help me? A-Alan's a little too horny today…" she tittered out.

Taylor glanced at Alan and saw that he was staring at her intently now.

Before she could respond, Alan pulled himself out of Lisa and got off of the bed. With his still stiff and throbbing member hanging between his legs and his sweat-covered sleek and shining body turned towards her, Alan walked.

Taylor stiffened as Alan walked up to her, and pushed her softly. She stumbled from the unexpected push and yelped when she found herself backed to the wall next to the door.

With speed she'd come to expect from Alan, he grabbed her jeans, unzipped her front and pulled them down all the while he pinned her eyes in place with his staring eyes. She whimpered as he pulled her legs up and he placed his dick between them, grinding them against her clit.

He forced his lips on her lips, and she let out muffled whimpers as his tongue parted her teeth and slithered into her mouth.

It wasn't long until she was moaning from his dick, grinding her clit away, and his tongue inside her mouth, leaving sticky saliva behind everywhere.

'I'm getting r-really wet,' she thought as everything began to grow hot. For some reason, he hadn't completely stripped her like he usually did, and she began to sweat in her long-sleeve shirt.

It was here that she had an epiphany while remembering that strange girl's advice. 'Why not break the problem down to smaller bits and handle it from there?'

And right here and now, there weren't any thoughts about whether she wanted a baby or how jealous she felt about _her _man impregnating another woman.

All she wanted here and now was for Alan to fuck her until she couldn't walk on her own two legs. Then she wanted him to fuck her some more so that she drowned in the pleasure their sex.

"A-Alan," she called out when he broke the kiss. "In me. F-fuck me!"

He didn't verbally respond. Instead, he slammed his dick into her without any warning, and Taylor moaned like a whore as she finally felt his dick penetrate her.

"Y-Yes, m-more! G-Give me m-more, f-fast-!" she begged before breaking out into mewls and gasps as Alan picked up speed. Five minutes in, she climaxed but he didn't. He kept her pinned to the wall and drilled her. Ten minutes in, she climaxed for the second time and her body loosened against her will. Only thing keeping her pinned was Alan, and Alan was still going at it.

Fifteen minutes later, Alan finally climaxed, ejaculating into her, and she murmured incoherently as she climaxed again.

They remained there with her still pinned to the wall with his dick inside of her, and him keeping her pinned with his chest pushed against hers.

After a minute or two, he picked her up and walked to the bed where Lisa was now sleeping.

He set her down next to Lisa and went at it again.

**-VB-**

She woke up to something shaking her, and Lisa looked.

She deadpanned when she saw Taylor screaming in ecstasy as she took her fucking from Alan right next to her.

"Really?" she demanded as the bed continued to shake from Alan's pounding of Taylor's pussy. She looked at Taylor's face and let her power loose. [Is in no condition to respond. Alan is using minute electricity to stimulate her nerves around her clitorus and vagina.] She looked at Alan. [Is in the zone. Unless disturbed significantly, he'll continue to pound away at Taylor until she's unconscious. Unaware that his own use of minute quantity of electricity on Taylor is also affecting him.]

"Argh!" she growled as she gave up and crawled out of the bed. She walked over to the bathroom on her shaky legs.

**-VB-**

May 8, 2011

Despite the fact that I wanted to fuck both of them more, I restrained myself. Thankfully, this let Lisa to actually talk to me about what she could do to help instead of running her throat hoarse from sex.

"You want to use your power to screen my people and future recruits?" I repeated and Lisa nodded. She sat in front of me with only a bathrobe covering her, a cup of coffee in one hand, and a laptop on the desk. Just appearing like that in front of me was setting me off, but she knew that I knew that I couldn't be just fucking her every minute, every hour, and everyday; I had shit to do. So she was here in her bathrobe, looking her sexy and ready to be mated more just to mess with me.

Her smirk told me as much.

"Yes and yes."

One answer to my verbal question and one answer to my unasked question.

Bitch. My bitch, but still a bitch.

Her smirk only got wider.

"Yeah, go ahead," I told her. "If it's small stuff like spies for smaller gangs, then just kick them out. If they're spies from big gangs, then kill them and be done with it." She looked upset at my desire to kill people off. "Hey, we shouldn't let _spies _live to learn from their mistakes. That's bad."

"You said something sensible," she grumbled. "You're not supposed to say something sensible."

I raised an eyebrow. "Where did you get that idea from?" I asked incredulously.

"From your nonsensical repeat sex marathon. And the fact that you thought destabilizing the entire city by blowing up a base was a good idea."

"It did you good, didn't it?"

"And put everyone's attention on you."

"You make it sound like people weren't paying attention to me before this."

"Their attention then was just wary," she grunted back. "Now, they're arming themselves for a clash because they don't know what will set you off."

"... Really?"

She rolled her eyes and turned her laptop around. It was a website I was unfamiliar with.

"This place is the criminal's version of PHO."

"Criminal Capes Online."

It was … ridiculous.

"You get people like the Merchants, ABB, and E88 all floating around here but also Accord's lesser associates, and even some Teeth gang members trying to find a good target for their next mass murder spree."

"And?" I asked.

"Look at this thread."

I pulled the laptop to myself, only half a foot drag across the table, and read the thread she was on. "'Coalition Against Wyrm.'" I read through it, and by the end of it, I had a list of names who were part of the coalition, which promised to back the others up when Wyrm attacked one of them.

"Huh," I muttered.

"... You really thought that just killing Coil and being done with it was the end of it, didn't you?" she asked.

"Kind of?"

She facepalmed.

I thought about this coalition. Composed of ninety seven members most of whom did not live in Brockton Bay, this coalition was made because they didn't think that I was strong enough.

I went toe to toe with the Simurgh and they thought I wasn't strong enough.

'Well then, I suppose I'll have to show up for whichever Endbringer fight comes next just to remind them what I am,' I thought to myself.

**-VB-**

Exactly two weeks later, Leviathan came crashing into Boston.


	9. Chapter 9

The Endbringer Siren rang city-wide with the presence of and everyone froze to hear it.

Once, twice, thrice. It wasn't Brockton Bay.

Once, twice, thrice.

Pause.

Once, twice. It was in New England.

Pause.

Once. Twice.

It was Leviathan.

People began to panic. Even my disciplined Dragonteeth soldiers began to show minor signs of anxiety.

Instead of choosing not to answer their anxiety with silence in contempt that they weren't trusting me, I chose to answer them.

"Who am I?" I spoke through the speaker using the microphone that I had installed in my bedroom. "Am I not Wyrm? Am I not the dragon that even the Simurgh refused to fight?" I paused to let the words sink in. "Are you not the soldiers of Wyrm, the Dragonteeth? What is with this anxiety that I am feeling from all of you?"

It was in the way their feet shuffled uneasily on the earth. It was the way their heartbeat hastened faster, and the minute vibrations hummed like an annoying background noise to my power.

"I will be going to the Boston Endbringer battle. For this lack of faith in me, I expect the Dragonteeth to participate as search and rescue personnel. Get to it."

I waited for a moment before I felt the hurried yet disciplined movements of the ex-veterans start to move with the military discipline that's been ingrained into them before I took them under my wing.

Good.

Taylor looked up at me with wide eyes from where she'd curled up when the Endbringer Siren rang. Lisa was right next to her, hugging Taylor and looking at me with equally wide eyes.

"Try not to burn the region, yeah?" Lisa asked hoarsely, her face pale and her body trembling.

I snorted. "More likely than not, I'll be fighting Leviathan," I replied as casually as one could talk about Endbringers. "Fire is going to be useless." But I also had control over water. I hadn't tested my power over water, but it was going to be something I would test against Leviathan.

Lisa, ever being the information weasel, paled.

"Y-You're also a hydrokinetic…?!" she hissed out as I walked out of the bedroom.

**-VB-**

Instead of heading to the PRT ENE headquarters for a teleporter to pick me up, I stood outside of the warehouse I owned, watching the Dragonteeth prep the few armored all-terrain trucks I owned to make their way to Boston.

It was like watching an angry ant hill rise up against anyone who dared to disturb them. Unlike said ants, my soldiers were going to do good. Bao, my Steward, kept the soldiers moving as quickly as they could towards the direction they needed to by shouting orders as they were needed.

But the moment he saw me, he handed his chart and the speakerphone to his own sub-steward(?)/secretary and ran over to me. He bowed deeply.

"Bao," I greeted the loyal man, and he quickly straightened himself.

"My lord. Your words earlier have roused the soldiers. Congratulations on your rhetorics," he said smoothly. He was being very blunt with his bootlicking, but only because he knew that I didn't care for it; I liked results more than words.

"How goes the preparations?" I asked instead of responding to his ass-kissing.

"My lord, the preparations are being made as fast as possible," he replied eagerly and seriously, forgoing further playful jests. "All four of the armored trucks will be loaded with our troops, and as you stated, we shall be traveling directly towards Boston rather than joining the PRT. May I… ask why, though, my lord?"

"Because if I send you to the fight directly like the PRT likes to do for their troopers, then I will have dead soldiers. If I send you like this, then you will arrive after the fight is over to help the people get out of the ruined city."

Bao looked at me blankly for a second before he frowned. "You are very sure that the city will be ruined, my lord."

I barked out a laugh. "Of course, it will be. Even without me, Leviathan alone would flood a port city like Boston, if it doesn't outright sink the city and the surrounding region underwater for shits and giggles like it did to India."

It was something I learned. Before I was dropped into Earth Bet, I read Worm and there was no mention of Endbringer attacks between certain years. Namely, the attacks that happened in the mid 2000's were missing.

Well, I came here and found out.

The southern half of the Indian Subcontinent got the power washing treatment from Leviathan. Half of Ceylon was sunk while the southern half of the subcontinent itself still suffered from fast desertification from the top soil washing away from Leviathan's tidal waves. As if to mock the humans, Leviathan didn't leave behind much human casualties.

Rapid desertification, fear of the coast, and a large population without shelter, food, and water led to one thing.

Mass migration.

India's already massively populated north experienced so much influx of refugees from the south that … it broke. People fought seemingly for any reason. Money, religion, culture, and so on. India, as a nation, broke to a thousand riots.

It was still better than what Russia turned out to be, but it was still bad.

It was apparently the reason why the west coast had a lot of Indian immigrants, which led to more issues…

Speaking of…

"Are the Indians in the corp okay with going to fight Leviathan?" I asked without looking at Bao.

My Dragonteeth did not care for the trooper's ethnicity, culture, and religion as long as they were professional, applied themselves to my rules, and didn't let home life affect the work life. Despite this, I couldn't help but worry about the few Indians I had in my Dragonteeth ranks, especially the Tamil clique. Making up seven of the thirteen "Indian" soldiers, Tamil people were the ones who suffered the most at the hands of Leviathan.

"Some of them were eager, others weren't," Bao replied. "But since we will be entering the city after the fight…"

"It won't be a problem at all."

"Yes, my lord."

"And the rest?"

"We veterans are just happy that we have a job and happier that the job asks us to help people."

I couldn't tell if Bao was genuinely saying that or - again - attempting to bolster my ego. Regardless, I could tell that the morale of the soldiers weren't bad, so I left it at that.

"Bao, make sure nothing happens to the soldiers in the clean-up. It would be unfortunate if veterans who should know better to die to urban looters and thugs who haven't even been in a real battle," I said offhandedly, even if my words were serious and a command regardless of how I said it.

"Of course, my lord."

"You may go. I'm about to take off."

Bao bowed again as deeply as before and then backed off. He straightened himself and gestured, and the soldiers around us were quick to clear the space. Even then, it was an organic process within the overarching preparation that was happening in the deployment of the Dragonteeth.

With that said, I _grew._ My body lengthened rapidly, more akin to a chemical reaction speed than any natural growth, and where a man stood two seconds ago, a long wingless dragon sat in a coil.

I unfurled myself and flew up into the sky, causing gusts to blow in all directions. I flew over the skyline and then higher up into the air. Once I cleared the height of the highest building around here, I turned southward and blasted off.

Distance from Brockton Bay to the center of Boston was roughly forty-five miles. By car, it would take most people an hour to get there, following the road rules and all that.

I could fly.

And I could fly fast.

_Crack-boom!_

**-VB-**

Bao watched his lord break the sound barrier and fly steadily - and rapidly - fly away from the Dragonteeth base.

He sighed.

Talking to his lord, as always, was stressful. Just being around him caused his heart to beat erratically in fear, and it was fear; his response to fear was just to be snarky.

His lord scared him, and it was for a good reason. When he was found by his lord, he was nothing but a sniveling mass of a degenerate, getting by day to day on mere scraps despite the fact that he had been a USA veteran of ten years.

Ten years, he'd served his country.

What did that get him? Some tax cuts that he never got to "use" because he could never get a job. The military, with its budget cuts, couldn't afford to help him find a job; they had bigger issues and needs that needed their attention.

So what did he do? He went to his hometown only to find it in near rubble - what was Brockton Bay if not in near rubble? - and … became homeless. He couldn't get a job, he had no house, he had no money because some debt collectors came calling because of his little sister, and things just went down the shitter.

It really hurt to see the city he'd grown up in in such a state. Even though he was part of the problem, he wanted to help fix it. Alas, he was powerless.

Seven months into his life as a homeless, his lord found him being beat up by gangsters.

And Bao smiled because he was afraid of the tall and muscular man who ripped apart gangsters with his bare hands, literally.

When he saw this scene, Bao didn't feel what most would have felt. Many would have thought to submit themselves or do something to get in the grace of the new dragon. Bao did this, but his purpose in joining Wyrm was not something as selfish as wealth and power. He wanted to _use _Wyrm to make this city better, which would make his life better.

He knew that the said reasoning was his own patriotic twist to want something selfish out of this new life. He knew it then and he knew it now.

Wyrm, as much as he respected his lord, was a means to an end.

His service under his lord began as a homeless bum, but he was now one of the three "councilors" of Lord Wyrm. He was the Steward of the Dragonteeth, and as such, he now had the power to change things the way he wanted. He hired veterans like himself, removing them off the streets, away from the influences of gangs and other degenerates. He urged his lord to get involved in the economy, and used the products of his lord's power to help the economies in the city and beyond start to roll again.

All of this was just in his favor.

It was because of this that he prayed to the God above for the safe return of his lord.

Because everything he had worked for would fall apart if his lord died fighting Leviathan.

He looked back down to the ground where he saw the Dragonteeth soldiers hurriedly load supplies.

He snorted. His lord may have ordered the Dragonteeth to help with search and rescue, but Bao would do more than just a search and rescue. He would provide real aid (recruit more like minded people in the process) and make the Dragonteeth an organization to be respected within the minds of the people. His lord would provide the means for positive change to come to this side of New England.

Bao would make it so.


	10. Chapter 10

**MERRY CHRISTMAS**

**And thank you, my pat-reons, for the support you've shown me so far. **

**-VB-**

**Dragon **

"Wyrm inbound from the north north-east!" she reported through the wristbands. "Current size: one hundred meters!"

That was already on the lower end of the scale - no pun intended - for the cape who fought Simurgh in Canberra.

"{Projected growth rate?!}" one of the Thinkers on site asked.

Dragon checked her sensors and metaphorically blanched. "He's growing a meter per second!" she reported then a new data made that statement irrelevant. "He's growing faster now!"

She hoped to God that this wouldn't be another Kyushu. Canberra may have been saved because Simurgh retreated after being damaged too much thanks to Wyrm, but Leviathan was different.

The middle child of the Endbringers did not need to be at the target city to envelope the world in tidal waves.

"Tidal wave inbound!" she reported hurriedly.

**-VB-**

**Wyrm**

The rain started less than three seconds into my flight at which point, I was in southern Brockton Bay. Less than a second after that, the rain began to harder and heavier, and control over my Water Element, one of my four elemental mastery power, began to fray.

Irritated, I pushed my growth and I reasserted control.

In less than two minutes, I arrived at the northern edge of Boston just as the tidal wave formed on the horizon. I growled, feeling an irrational anger at Leviathan's control over _my water_, and took control.

Or rather, I tried.

The tidal wave died before it could reach the shore as I began to a mental tug of war with Leviathan which I couldn't even see. My power over water, something I rarely used because I hadn't seen the need to, pushed at an invisible barrier that deformed at whichever point I took off my focus. Irritated, I pushed my growth again, and I grew longer, thicker, and bigger. My Elemental Mastery grew stronger with myself, but Leviathan pushed its own control higher.

I kept on growing, but Leviathan matched me every single time.

Seeing as I needed my complete focus for this, I quickly flew over to command tents at subsonic speeds and curled up right next to it.

Capes and mundanes alike scrambled away from me, but Alexandria was quick to approach me.

"Wyrm, what are you doing?!" she shouted at me to be heard over the thunderstorm.

'Annoying,' I thought about the thunderstorm. Was I ignoring Alexandria? Yes. This was my fight to show dominance to the rest of the world. I was not going to heed to the call of the schemer shouting at me. I looked up and focused on dispersing the water molecules in the clouds.

Leviathan did not like that. It abandoned the control of water in the seas within my newfound range (extending nearly to the horizon in my one mile long form) and took direct control of the clouds.

At this point, I wasn't thinking straight. I was an animal. I reacted like an animal. I abandoned the control of the sea to control the sky.

And Leviathan immediately launched a tidal wave less than half a mile from Boston's coast.

Alexandria shouted something at me again as I pushed my growth again, growing bigger, thicker, and longer. I ignored her as I split my focus on both fronts.

By that point, Leviathan's new and empowered tidal wave struck the Boston coast and crashed through the first row of buildings with the force of a chainsaw against human flesh. Stone and concrete broke under high water pressure and formed dangerous shards underwater, and I knew this because despite losing effective control radius to control both the sea and the sky, I could still sense the water.

But _I didn't give a fuck. _All I cared about was the fact that someone else was intruding upon my domain.

So I grew bigger. Something crumbled against my body but I ignored it.

And then I saw it.

Leviathan.

It swam up the shore with its tidal wave. Unfortunately for it, its action brought me closer and closer.

Slowly but surely.

Deeper and deeper into territory of greater control.

I roared as I brought my trap down on it. Control multiplicative greater than my control out in the ocean grasped Leviathan, stealing away its control over water in an instant. I pushed the water out and Leviathan collapsed onto the road.

It quickly stood up and reared its head up towards me.

I met its gaze, even knowing that it was nothing but a lifeless husk of a drone.

It was, regardless of its status as a drone, something that dared to assume that it could take control over the elements from _**ME**_!

Without anymore waiting, I jumped up from where I had been waiting in a coil and rose up into the sky. A third of my body was still in the coiled state when I hit the peak of my jump. Leviathan jumped up to meet me.

Just as the tail left the ground, I slammed down onto Leviathan with my claws and teeth. I held on with all of my might and I used fire and air to create my Danmaku curtain around me. Pinpricks of light, a thousand strong, erupted around me and then slammed into Leviathan. Unable to escape from my grasp, Leviathan took all of the hits.

I tore a chunk of its shoulder and tossed it aside, spewing its false blood everywhere and painting the wet concrete landscape black. It punched my jaw with strength far greater than it should have, and I felt my bone shatter on impact.

But unlike its youngest sibling, it had no ranged attack to push me off. I controlled all of its water, and with it at the center of my sphere of control, there was no way it could control any water!

MINE!

I roared as my jaw repaired itself on the spot. Fire built up within my maw and I blasted it on the face. I controlled the Air and pushed oxygen into the fire, sending the already asphalt melting temperature higher. Leviathan's skin began to melt but it wasn't helpless.

Not by a long shot.

It headbutted me with enough force to topple a skyscraper.

My jaw scrunched up on the spot, spewing my blood everywhere. The heat around my mouth, however, vaporized my blood instantly, sending high temperature red mist in all directions instead of blood. Before I could regenerate, it struck the side of my head with its tail. My draconic skull caved in on the point but only just.

I retaliated. I wrapped my considerable self around Leviathan and constricted. Its body fractured where I constricted, and I wrapped tighter. With its arms and legs coiled up, it could not retaliate anymore.

Protected as I was from my own attacks, I reared my head back with my repaired jaw and blasted Leviathan's upper body again.

Then Leviathan did something totally unexpected.

It secreted water from its body. Though water itself was under my command, it provided Leviathan with enough slip to push its way out of my constriction.

I roared angrily even as I lashed out with my teeth and claws, none of which struck true. My teeth landed a glancing blow on its tail as it jumped away from me, and the follow-up blast of fire from my throat did just as little.

It did stagger its jump pathway, driving it closer to my body and claws, and I lashed out. My tail, now half a kilometer long, struck blindingly fast for something of its size. The contraction of the muscles alone could be heard even in the midst of this fight.

It did nothing. Leviathan slipped over the tail strike, landed and then sidestepped the claws, and then … ran away. Away from me. Away from the city and back to the ocean.

I chased after it. I pounced, causing tremors throughout the city.

But then Eidolon got in my face and stopped me. Leviathan ran and dove into the sea.

It was over.

But now, my anger was fully upon the Triumvirate for stopping me from destroying the drone.

My jaw refused to open. I saw Alexandria grabbing a few of my teeth, keeping my mouth shut.

I pushed my growth.

I pushed it higher.

And higher!

FASTER!

STRONGER!

And then I stopped as I saw that there was nothing worthwhile to destroy anymore, not even Eidolon.

I grunted and took to the sky. Alexandria let go as I flew away and Eidolon didn't stop me. Nearly three kilometers long and a hundred meters thick, I flew back home. I began to shrink and it was only when I shrunk down to my Wyrmling form that I was able to think properly again.

And I allowed myself to grin as I leisurely made my way back to Brockton Bay by flying.

Unlike with the Simurgh, I showed the world that there was no doubt as to who would win - on the surface - when I fought Endbringers.

I was stronger than Eidolon! Than the whole of Triumvirate combined!

I was the winner.

The King.

The _Dragon King_.

'... Is that actually a good name, though?' I thought to myself. 'What happens when people really start to call me king or something? That's going to be super awkward for me. I'll probably get used to it, though.'

With just a bit of self-doubt and uncertainty, I continued to head home.


	11. Chapter 11: PHO

**Interlude: PHO**

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Today is February 8, 2011.

**Topic: Endbringer Battle: Wyrm vs. Leviathan  
In: Boards ► East Coast**

**Petun **(Original Poster)  
May 20, 2011:  
Shit went down, yooo….  
For those of you who haven't heard the news yet, the Second Dragon of Brockton Bay went and did what his older brother did: have a smackdown with Leviathan. Unlike Lung, Wyrm managed to succeed in driving away Leviathan without causing Boston and its region to sink under the ocean, thank bloody GOD because I live - lived - in Boston.

**Edit:** Agreed upon and verified series of events, thanks to AmericanBerber's admittedly low quality VIDEO.  
2011.5.20 1:02 PM - First Leviathan sighting.  
2011.5.20 1:07 PM - Standard Protectorate EB response.  
2011.5.20 1:17 PM - First team arrives from Los Angeles.  
2011.5.20 1:22 PM - Confirmed sighting of Wyrm leaving Brockton Bay.  
2011.5.20 1:23 PM - Leviathan's tidal waves forms.  
2011.5.20 1:24 PM - Wyrm arrives via flying from Brockton Bay to Boston. Instead of fighting, he sits down next to the command tent and broods. He is one hundred yards long at the least.  
2011.5.20 1:27 PM - Leviathan's tidal wave vanishes. Wyrm starts to grow in size. At this point, the Thinkers in the command tent realizes that Wyrm can control water. Wyrm is now three hundred yards long.  
2011.5.20 1:29 PM - There's some water fuckery between Leviathan and Wyrm over the skies before Leviathan regains control of the ocean waters, sending a much smaller but still deadly tidal wave into Boston waterfront. Six hundred yards long.  
2011.5.20 1:31 PM - Wyrm steals control of water when Leviathan reaches far deeper inland. Wyrm leaps forward and smacks into Leviathan. 1 kilometer long.  
2011.5.20 1:32 PM - Wyrm continues to grow and blasts away continuously at Leviathan with his "danmaku." 1.3 kilometers long.  
2011.5.20 1:33 PM - Leviathan lands a vicious headbutt. Wyrm shows regeneration on par with Brute 8, healing his entire jaw within half a minute. Wyrm is 1.4 kilometers long.  
2011.5.20 1:34 PM - Wyrm wraps around Leviathan like a snake and begins to squeeze. Leviathan suffers the greatest damage known to date as all areas constricted by Wyrm crack and bleed before caving in. Wyrm is 1.9 kilometers long.  
2011.5.20 1:36 PM - Wyrm is now 2.1 kilometers long. He continues to constrict, bite, and blast Leviathan but doesn't seem to be growing any closer to killing the bastard.  
2011.5.20 1:37 PM - Leviathan makes water from its skin and slips out of Wyrm's constriction. Flees at near Mach 1 through the city, heading southward instead of the closest direction to the sea, which is eastward.  
2011.5.20 1:38 PM - Wyrm gives brief chase but stops, growing bigger and bigger without any reason as to why he stopped. At the height of his growth, Wyrm is 2.9 kilometers long.  
2011.5.20 1:40 PM - Seemingly done fighting, Wyrm flies away, growing smaller as he did so.

Total duration of the Boston EB fight: 38 minutes, beating the second shortest fight by 3 hours and 17 minutes.  
**Edit:** PHO Power Rating for Wyrm - Changer 10 (Brute 8, Blaster 9, Mover 7, Shaker 8, Thinker 3?)  
Brute 8 - his constriction broke LEviathan's skin.  
Blaster 8 - each bullet of his "danmaku" can destroy a modest 1 story house by itself. He fires hundreds of each "barrage."  
Mover 7 - He reached Boston from Brockton Bay by flying and in under two minutes. Distance is roughly 45 miles, making his average speed for his flight 600ish meters per second, which is Mach 2.  
Shaker 8 - He is known to control earth and fire. He now controls water and wages dominance battle across a city with an Endbringer over the sky and ocean. It should be higher.  
Thinker 4 - Refer to Shaker 8. Highly likely that he can sense where people are by the water they hold.  
**Edit**: Did I mention that this guy won one of the best power lottery if not the best?

**Bagrat **(Veteran Member)(Guy In the Know)  
May 20, 2011:  
Basically, what the OP said. The battle also took less than an hour, which is absurd. The PRT and other relief forces are moving into Boston now. The main collateral damages have been to an area between South End and South Boston. The tidal waves Leviathan unleashed, however, damaged all of Boston, having been far more powerful than any other wave it'd used before.  
On that note, Wyrm could have given chase but he didn't. My source in the PRT doesn't know why, and I'm too afraid to ask Wyrm himself.  
On that note, my source also told me that the PRT will be keeping an even closer eye on Brockton Bay. Maybe some transfers are in order…

**ArtisanalLover **(Verified Cape)  
May 20, 2011:  
I saw Leviathan and Wyrm duke it out from only one block away. I almost died because Wyrm's tail slammed into the block right next to me. As it is, I am happy I am only covered in scratches. He's also fucking fast! I didn't even see him move his tail, and ZOOM the house next to me is getting blown to smithereens!  
Did I tell you all that I was only one block away because I WAS ONLY ONE BLOCK AWAY FROM THE GODDAMN FIGHT!

**XxVoid_CowboyxX**  
May 20, 2011:  
Wyrm went home after a good fight for a victory sex.

**CaringATon**  
May 20, 2011:  
Void, no one wants you here. You don't add anything to the discussion. Tin_Mother, can you please ban VC from this thread before he says something that gets him banned anyway?

**Tin_Mother**  
May 20, 2011:

As much as I would like to, I will stick to the rules. He can't be banned until he says something stupid.

**MoWAGH**  
May 20, 2011:  
Wyrm lives in Brockton Bay, right? That shit hole? Well, I guess it just turned into a fiery shithole. Does anyone want to take up bets with me on how many villains are smart enough to leave that hellhole?

**SpecificProtagonist**  
May 20, 2011:  
This is actually fucking scary. Oh my god, I'm getting out of the bay ASAP.

**AmericanBerber**  
May 20, 2011:  
I got a really bad video taken from a phone HERE. It almost looks as if something is holding Wyrm's head back at the end of the fight. That's when he abruptly stops.  
**badfunpoker**  
May 20, 2011:  
I can't tell if there is something stealthing in front of Wyrm's head or if that's just the quality of the video playing tricks on me.

**TruewendiGo**  
May 20, 2011:  
Probably the video quality. I mean, who's gonna break the Endbringer Truce to stop Wyrm? You know, who we saw absolutely demolishing Leviathan in this video? Thanks for the video, AmericanBerber. Public EB battle videos are so rare, never mind the absolute lack of Simurgh videos because of the international ban on them.

**34632734634537**  
May 20, 2011:  
I am more interested in getting a proper power rating on Wyrm. Does anyone know the length of his final form?

**AmIAVillain **(Not a Villain)  
May 20, 2011:  
Is that his final form, though?

**MoWAGH**  
May 20, 2011:  
Something like "You haven't seen my final form!" again, AmIAVillain?

**XxVoid_CowboyxX**  
May 20, 2011:  
Of course, it isn't his final form! He's holding back!

**AmIAVillain**  
May 20, 2011:  
Aside from how stupid it is to suggest that someone was holding back at an Endbringer fight like Void is doing, I think Wyrm wasn't in his final form. He was still growing but the lack of an enemy was what got him to leave.  
**Savant **(Guy With the Math)  
May 20, 2011:  
If you look at the best frame (6:15 - 4th frame), then you can see Wyrm's jump from former command tent towards Leviathan. Yes, this is not the longest but we can see how long he is at this point. He is nine hundred pixels long from snout to tail directly and seven hundred twenty-ish the long way around and Wyrm's body is in a near perfect parabolic arch. You can see that he jumps from THIS spot on the map, which is called Prime Storage, and lands just after the highway there. That's 500 meters at the minimum if you measure it on the map. This makes each pixel roughly 1.8 meters, give or take 0.1 meters. This makes Wyrm's total length at this point at the minimum 1224 meters and at most 1368 meters.  
We know that he's much bigger than the Endbringer, but that's a very long fucking body.

**AsinKo **(Brocktonite)  
May 20, 2011:  
I'm scared. I'm just scared.

**MoWAGH**  
May 20, 2011:  
Yeah, I don't blame you.

**Petun **(Original Poster)  
May 21, 2011:  
Living in the same town as two escalating dragons capable of fighting on apocalyptic scale. Yeah, I don't envy you at all, Asinko.

[Pages: **(1)** 2 3 … 19]


	12. Chapter 12

Thank you to my pat-reons (Defineitly, GWSwift, Kejmur, Crazyfox, Alexander S!)

-VB-

**Lisa **  
June 10, 2011

It's been more than two weeks since Alan went to Boston and fought Leviathan, forcing the Endbringer to retreat. Of course, she noticed some discrepancies when the low quality of the video was released. Her power immediately noticed how he tried to move forward but something was stopping him.

Alan didn't talk about it, though. Just said that he got snagged.

Well, Lisa saw a big opportunity with the Endbringer's retreat. Considering that her fate was more or less connected with Alan, she took matters into her own hands.

That coalition she told Alan about? Gaining access to their "secret" website was all too easy. She also made sure to sow some fear among them. Made them question whether they really had the necessary firepower to fight Wyrm, who sent Leviathan packing.

And when she was done with her little intrigue, she made sure to collect the names of the more important members and then presented them to Alan for good measure.

As much as she wanted to sucker punch Alan repeatedly, she knew that she was tied to him.

'What am I doing?' she thought to herself, sitting in her own "office" in the Lair's underground base. 'I'm helping my warden. Is this Stockholm Syndrome?' she sighed. 'It has to be some kind of a power-'

[There are no powers involved in our relationship. Alan has no Master-related power."

'But that just means that I'm willingly helping the guy who fucks-!'

[Specifically, you traded away your own freedom for safety, and you knew that sexual service would be a part of the deal. You are unhappy with how you ended up in this situation, not the details of it.]

She opened her mouth and closed her mouth before sighing.

"Whatever," she muttered. "I'm stuck here. I'm someone's fuck toy. I'm _fucking pregnant_," she hissed out towards the end. She sighed again, having finished a mini-rant, leaned back into her comfy leather office chair and then looked down.

Her belly swelled. It almost made her feel bloated, but unlike any fat she'd felt before, there was a firmness to her stomach that she'd never felt before. She caressed her belly and sighed.

Yes, she was pregnant, and if her power was correct…

[It is a girl.]

Ugh. There was going to be another of her coming out. Lisa didn't know whether or not she would be able to handle that. She just hoped that she wouldn't be as shitty of a parent as her parents, the kind that uses their children for _profit_ without even thinking about whether or not their children were okay with that.

If being fucked by Alan taught her a lesson, then it was that there was a clear line of choice; she ultimately submitted herself to Alan. That and her need for revenge wasn't stronger than her survival instinct.

'… Would I name my baby or would Alan?'

Her hands slid slowly over her belly again, covered as it was with her t-shirt, and she pondered on that thought.

'Would Alan even care about the baby?' It was a bit of a scary thought. She didn't doubt for a fact that since she was "his," he wouldn't abuse her unless she did something stupid like steal from him. It just involved a lot of moaning as he pounded into her and put more babies.

He'd probably care for the baby, right?

She was going to have to

Sighing, Lisa stood up from her office chair and left the office, walking across the polished marble floor - [work done by one of Dockworkers Union members] - and walked out into the corridors. She closed the door to her office - [Sapele Mahogany, imported directly from an African warlord seeking to establish good ties with Wyrm, and then processed right here within the bay] - and walked forward. She nodded to the people she passed by, who were now a mix of Dragonteeth soldiers, some of their families, and more than a few soldier hopefuls.

She wasn't happy with any of them, though. Most of them regarded her less of herself and more of the fact that she was Wyrm's woman.

But was she being harsh on them by being irritated by those thoughts and the actions that came from them?

… Yeah, she was petty enough to be irritated and angry over them.

She continued to walk, noting that the Lair had furthered its remodeling. There was a metallic sleekness in the base that had been absent before Wyrm's victory at Boston.

And speaking of Boston, she was consolidating power over there by acting as an unseen employer of many new capes. Kind of like what Coil did but she made sure that she would never point a gun at anyone's head.

She was above that. Yes, she was...

So lost in her thoughts, she reached Alan's bedroom at the bottommost layer of the Lair, completely missing the fact that she had autopilot herself through the maze like Lair and the elevator ride.

[You are becoming much more familiar with the Lair.]

Thanks for that, Power Obvious.

She didn't need to knock; knocking was reserved only for the minions. So she just walked in…

"Y-YES YES Y-yes-!"

Taylor's climactic screams greeted her.

She sighed.

To Lisa's surprise, when she asked Alan to stop fucking her so much, he actually complied. Taylor, however, was very willing to take over the "time slots" that Lisa gave up. As a result, despite being further in her pregnancy than her, Lisa always seemed to find Taylor being fucked by Alan.

Lisa wondered if this was going to be her life now. Fucked in-between cape-related organizational work, Taylor subbing for her as Alan's endless sex partner, and giving birth to babies.

[Alan is in love with pregnant Taylor. Unlikely to say it out loud. He already discussed with Taylor name of her baby. Realized that he hasn't discussed with you about your baby's name.]

And without having to ask Alan, she got her answer. It … made her happy, at least.

She was not happy when Alan noticed her and dragged her to bed.

-VB-

**Alan**  
June 11, 2011

"As of right now, we are in control over 15% of the Brockton Bay, my lord," Steward Bao reported with that ever present snake smile - or was it fox grin? - on his face.

I sat in a meeting with Bao, Lisa, and few other close advisors of the Dragonteeth. The purpose of this meeting was to get a clear read of our situation in Brockton Bay and New England as a whole. I had to get this clear read because over the last two weeks, I have been recklessly expanding the Dragonteeth.

The purpose of such recklessness?

Despite Lisa's work in driving a wedge between the Coalition members - the capes and their followers who wanted to kill me - and their allies, my stunt at Boston had only pushed them further into gathering more members.

In short, I was expecting war.

"Territorially or economically?"

"On average, my lord. Territorially, we control less than 5% of the city," Bao amended. "It is still a large portion of the city, considering that I am adding the Brockton Bay metropolitan area as part of the calculation, but it's nothing compared to PRT's 40%, E88's 29%, and the ABB's 15%. However, we have accepted the contract from Dockworker's Union to protect them at a low rate, though we get some skilled laborers in exchange. This makes up less than 5% of our income. Your own mining operation makes up the majority of our income, my lord, at 74%. With Boston gone, however, the nearest refineries we dealt with were within Brockton Bay itself, though of much smaller size. We invested heavily into them, and they have expanded greatly since."

"In only two weeks?"

"The law of the land only states that capes cannot start their own business, which is why we are considered a criminal organization. But if someone else hires capes, whose power can be used to speed up construction, that just want to work for a _normal _business, then it's all fair game."

"I asked about the speed, not about the entire dilemma, Bao," I said irritably, clicking my tongue at him.

Bao chuckled, always so blatantly fearless. "Of course, of course," he assured me. "I merely thought that you would want the whole explanation."

"The proper explanation should have been 'we hired a cape to speed up construction,'" I replied.

He stopped for a second. "Huh, you are right, my lord." He cleared his throat, suddenly embarrassed by being called out on his lengthiness. "Moving on, economically, we make up 42% of the total GDP of the city, even though we only hire ten thousand people at max within the city."

"How does that calculate to 15%?"

"Because surprisingly, the PRT ENE makes about as much money as we do."

"They do?" more than one voice around the table spoke up in surprise and in sync.

"Very technically speaking, the lands around the PRT ENE headquarters belongs to the government, which gives PRT ENE the rights to administer."

Lisa frowned from my left. "That's some parahuman feudalism right there…" she mumbled. "Shouldn't the government do something opposite-." She stopped, and her eyes widened, no doubt listening to her power whisper secrets she's not meant to know. Her head whipped to me, which caused noticeable confusion from the others.

"Yeah," I replied, knowing what her power must have concluded from that obscure piece of information. I was actually surprised that such a policy existed. "No doubt PRT ENE collects rent from the businesses around it, and push out anyone who shows unfavorable views of the PRT ENE." Was Piggot aware of this?

"I'm … surprised you managed to deduce that much, sir," Bao said, his eyes blinking. "Yes, it is true that while PRT ENE's more overt income source is government's budgeting and souvenir sales, they do make a significant amount of money - 13% of their income, in fact - from the leasing of land and buildings."

"And if you combine their souvenir sales, their land leases, and fed's deposit of money…"

"They 'make' as much of the city's GDP as we do, yes sir."

"... Alright. Thank you, Bao, for giving us that picture of the city's balance of power."

He bowed. "I live to serve, my lord." Then he sat down.

"Lisa?" I asked, knowing that she must have something to present.

Lisa sighed.

"The Coalition I told you about?" she asked. "That I asked you to prepare for?"

"Yes…?"

"They intend to attack within the month. The braindead idiots."


	13. Chapter 13

Step 22: Door to roof of Boston Missionary Baptist Church.

Step 23: Turn on phone.

Step 24: Face northeast.

Step 25: Activate Camera App.

Step 26: Bend knees and brace for impact.

Step 27: Start recording the battle.

Step 28: Shake phone a little, no more than 5 mm from starting position in any direction.

Step 29: Fix camera's view on Wyrm.

Step 30: Stop recording.

Step 31: Slide down the rooftop to the left.

Step 32: Jump down.

Step 33: Land on car.

Step 34: Walk off the car.

Step 35: Enter the church through unlocked door.

Step 36: Door to Media Room, Home Base.

Step 37: Walk up to computer.

Step 38: Sit down and turn on computer.

Step 39:...

...

Step 121: Upload edited video.

Step 122: Click on "Create Post" button.

Sub-Path Complete. Re-routing to Main Path.

Step 2,220: Call Rebecca.

Step 2,221: Wait for Rebecca to ask the question.

Step 2,222: Respond by saying, "If he chased after Leviathan, then he would have met Scion and triggered Scion's rampage."

Step 2,223: Say "goodbye. I will see you at dinner tomorrow."

**-VB-**

**Alan Marris**

June 13, 2011

Boston was devastated, so I focused on growing my business and influence within the Bay. Unfortunately, I knew that sooner or later, it would bring attention I didn't want.

The Coalition was exactly that. Even though I'd gone off to Boston, fought the Endbringer, and showed the world that I was not someone to be trifled with, I had done the exact opposite: I stoked the fear of the mentally impaired idiots - because what else were traumatized people with power? - into gathering against me.

It made me wonder if I should react to this world, Earth Bet, with rational decisions and logic. After all, those in power all around the world were parahumans with more than a screw missing in their heads. If I reacted to them rationally, then I would be at a disadvantage. On top of that, why should I keep to myself as I have? Even though I have clearly shown a "disinterest" in not pushing anyone under my command by force or expanding my territory, they just kept on considering me their enemy.

… Perhaps I should stop holding back. To stop being the "Smaug" of Brockton Bay. Sure, it had gotten me the power base, minions, and familiarity I needed and wanted, but it had also done nothing to dissuade the idiots from forming alliances against me.

That said, what could I do?

… Lisa would have an idea. She's been keeping tabs on the idiots after all.

-VB-

"What do you mean I have to wait for them to come to us?" I asked with a growl. Lisa snorted while staring at me before turning her laptop around for me to see what was on the screen.

"They aren't just gathering capes; they're also hiring entire organizations and allying themselves to big names like the Elite."

I read through the e-mail I was seeing. It was ended with a " ". Elite had their own website? Actually, why wouldn't they have their own website? "The Elite wants to ally with the Coalition?" I mumbled out with a displeased grunt.

Unlike the Coalition, the Elite was a well-established villainous rogue group. Even if their branch memberships had differing leadership styles which ranged from corporate-funded heroes to only a step above the Slaughterhouse Nine, they had a distinct desire to mess with a certain political and societal balance within their areas of operation. Imbalance was, after all, bad for business.

But the Elite didn't operate in Brockton Bay. I heard rumors that they were trying to expand into Boston, but Accord had put an end to that. Accord was still in Boston, spurning up something within the ruins of the port city.

'Obviously, he's remaking Boston into his own image,' I thought to myself.

"What's holding them together?" I asked.

Lisa smiled.

"The Elite's using this chance to scout out the competition," she replied. "Some of the Coalition don't care, but most of the smart ones know that the Elite will be their biggest problem after the Protectorate if they manage to stop you."

"That's actually what I'm confused about," I said exasperatedly. "Stop me from doing what?"

Lisa hummed. "From what I read, they're just flat out scared of you."

"I understand that much, Lisa. I'm not dumb. What I want to know is exactly how and why they are fearful of me. I want to know what I can do to fracture their little confederation of idiots."

"If you're looking for something to break their band, then I think you're out of luck," she sighed as she leaned back into her office chair.

"... Why?" I asked, a little bit warily and a little bit confused.

"They're not centralized, so they don't have a central command for us to break."

Made sense.

"They're allied with the Elite, but the Elite haven't exactly put their all into their endeavor."

They haven't? That's good news.

"At this point, it's closer to a defensive pact."

And that's bad news.

"So if you're okay with bringing down all of the Elite's branches east of the Mississippi, then I guess you can attack them."

"What else?"

"They are a lot of members of this Coalition, but they are annoyingly tight lipped about who is the actual leader. I identified recruiters and regional recruiters, propaganda writers, logistic managers, and more, but the actual leader of the Coalition? I haven't found them, yet."

"Didn't you show me a list of names before?" I asked.

"Yes, but I've already gone through those names. None of them are important… except maybe this guy."

She turned the laptop back towards her, and after a quick typing, she pulled up something. Turning the laptop back towards me, I saw what was on the screen.

"'Mantellum'?" The name in question belonged to a Case-53 who was part of the Coalition. His power was … "Power negation, huh?"

"They hope that his power, which has a radius of effect power nullification, can be used to fight against you. They have other power negaters and nullifiers, but the Coalition is hedging their bets on him."

"... And do you know where he lives?"

Lisa smirked before it turned brittle ."You're … ah, going to kill him?" she asked nervously.

"I'll go talk to him, if you aren't happy with me just killing idiots, even if it would do the gene pool a favor."

She stared into my eyes, trying to find answers with her power no doubt.

"... He lives in Boston, actually. There's a small community of Case-53's who hide away from public, thanks to one of their own's Tinker who can bend space. Think of it like M.C. Escher but more modern."

I nodded. "What can you tell me about him?"

"Power nullifying effect comes from his ability to project a field," she replied. "Makes any kind of perception power useless. Basically, it's a perfect counter to combat Thinkers and annoying as hell to Thinkers in general."

"But not you?" I asked.

"Not me~," she hummed with a foxy grin. "See, Mantellum's power, from what I gathered, only works if you're directly there."

"... Wait, if his power works mostly on Thinkers, then how do they intend to use him against me?"

Lisa blinked. "To blind you."

"... Blind me?"

"Yup. You know that you're not exactly smart when you're a dragon, right?"

"I do."

"Well, they have more than a few Tinkers who can project other capes' powers-"

"What the fuck don't they have?"

"Shush, let me explain." A pause. Why did she pause? "So they were hoping to use Mantellum and few others like him for their power nullification and negation to render you … basic, because they found out how you fight."

I blinked before my eyes narrowed. "They learned about how I fight?"

"You use whatever your senses are, right? The one that lets you control water, air, fire, and earth. And whatever those missiles are." She sighed. "I still can't believe you can outfire Legend. LEGEND!"

I grinned smugly. "I have a talent."

She huffed at me. "Anyways, this community…" she bit her lower lip. "From what I can gather, it's a good place for Case-53. Please don't burn it to the ground if they don't try something first."

I raised an eyebrow. "Lisa, we're dealing with idiots here."

"At least try."

I shrugged. It wasn't a big deal for me. "Sure."

I had a plan and a target in mind, now.

Mantellum and Boston.

To Boston!


	14. Chapter 14

To make sure that no one found out about my visit to Boston, I kept myself disguised as someone else. According to documents within the small bureaucracy of paperwork filed away in the electronic folders of the Dragonteeth, Wyrm stayed "fornicating" with his ladies at the bottom of the Lair while one of his trusted cape employees, a Shaker capable of controlling the earth, went to visit future recruits in Boston.

This was Lisa's almost paranoid defense against any Thinker trying to keep an eye out for my movement. I only called it almost paranoid because Thinkers were real and they were capable of fishing out even little tidbits of information like that.

Now, the planted information wasn't completely false because last night, I fucked Lisa until she knocked out and then did the same with Taylor. I couldn't wait to go back home, actually, to love them again.

At the same time, I was growing annoyed. I was following the instructions Lisa gave me to find this Case-53 community, but following said instruction was weird and annoying.

For example, why did I have to spin around five times in front of a sandwich shop called "Herald's Sandwich Cafe"?

From there with a few of my trusted soldiers, I walked into an alley where there were way too many doors. This alley, despite being so close to the coast, was also dry when the rest of the city was still wet and suffering from water damage. How? I looked around and realized that even though I had just entered the alley and took maybe five steps, the alley's entry was almost a hundred yards away from me.

'Definitely some Shaker shit is happening,' I thought to myself. Because I wasn't a dragon, my ability to sense through the earth was minimal, but I tried nonetheless.

"What's wrong, lil' boss?" one of the soldiers not in the know about my identity asked, hefting his Uzi underneath his trenchcoat. The other two carried the same gun and wore similar trenchcoat that hid their bulletproof vests and uniform.

"We're in a Shaker's field of effect," I replied. My earth sense bounced like a rather every time I tapped on the ground. The ground itself was still there and nothing seemed off about the ground itself.

I stopped when my ground radar pinged off an invisible structure from the direction we just walked from.

A wall? There was a wall that my eyes were not seeing between me and the exit. Then I felt a door open at the edge of my earth radar, which was some fifty feet away, behind me. I turned towards the opening door yet my eyes could not see the door open. I saw the door, yes, but it wasn't open. My earth radar told me that it was open.

'A Stranger?' I thought to myself. To my surprise, the cape in question undid their own effect. To my surprise, a Case-53 walked out. Clad in normal human attire, the mass of tentacles that made up their head and hands were anything but human. My three Dragonteeth soldiers quickly held up their guns from within their trenchcoats but remained silent. I also noticed that the Case-53 didn't seem alarmed by the sight of the guns...

"H-How did you get in here?" she asked nervously. Tentacle head she may be, but I definitely saw boobs on her chest. She squirmed when she noticed that my eyes were on her chest. "H-Hey, I'm asking you a question!"

I looked up to her tentacle head. The closest terrestrial analogue to its appearance would be a snake ball. I wondered what it felt like.

"I'm here as an envoy of the Dragonteeth to the Case-53 community housing Mantellum." But it would be rude to ask and I wanted to go home as quickly as possible. "Mantellum was the closest of the Coalition arrayed against the Dragonteeth and its liege, Wyrm. We merely came here to talk, hopefully to ask Mantellum to leave the Coalition."

The Case-53 froze. "Y-You work for that monster…?" she asked hoarsely. She began to backpedal towards the door.

I didn't want to appear threatening because I was definitely not going to be able to get into where this community was based if I did, so I raised my hands up. "If it suits you, then I'll come alone, provided that they will not be harmed?" I asked, gesturing to the soldiers behind me.

The Case-53 hesitated before nodding. "Okay. I'm gonna have a friend of mine come and verify y-your words." She left through the same invisible door she came through

I nodded and then gestured for the soldiers behind me to wait outside the alley. It was at this moment that the wall I'd detected earlier … slid into the walls. Was I already in their base? The base must have had some kind of camouflage to prevent outsiders or civilians who entered it on accident from finding out about this place.

I looked up towards the sky and saw New England's regular murky and cloudy summer sky. It was cool how they were able to make this kind of illusory tinkertech. I wondered if they would sell that tinkertech. I do have new Tinkers under my employee now, so they could fix the tinkertech I buy.

I pushed my ground radar up along the walls.

Oh wait, it actually doesn't have a roof. Kind of shoddy defense then. Nevermind.

Standing there quietly while I waited for whomever was in charge of this community's security to come to a decision was irritating. For the past half year or so, I stood as a king among rabble. My patience may have atrophied a bit from a lack of use. Ah,yes, people would describe my current attitude as impatient.

Still standing there, I finally noticed after about five minutes or so when that Case-53 returned with someone else on my ground radar.

They came through the invisible door again with the Case-53 in the front and her Thinker friend behind her. To my naked eye and not my ground radar, it looked like they were stepping out from nowhere.

The Thinker was also a Case-53 almost a footer taller than the first Case-53. He also had no human form, looking very much like a slug and a tiger fucked like rabbits and gave birth to a million slimes that acted together as a single organism that moved on the ground like a slug but had "fur" like a feline.

The slime-slug Case-53 looked at me for a second. "Holy shit, Casey. Why the fuck did you let Wyrm inside?" it asked, its voice very much like what it looked like; slimey, gooey, and composed of more than a thousand tiny voices speaking out at the same time. Despite the fact that its voice sounded like a thousand tiny children squealing, the end result was a deep… squealing? Did it mean that this Case-53 was a guy?

"He knew the password!" she -Casey, huh?- whined while turning around to complain to the slime-slug. The slimug(?) didn't turn away from me but did glance down at Casey with its seven eyes. Why did he have an eye on top of his head?

The slume(?) looked at me before he gurgled. "What are you here for, Wyrm?" he asked. "Casey said something about meeting Mantellum, but I can't let you meet him."

I didn't say anything for a moment. I wanted to show them that I clearly did not mean that hostility, that I was here in peace, mostly because Lisa asked me to be "gentle."

"I already know what the Coalition wants with _people _like Mantellum," I said, stressing "people." If their appearances are anything to go by, then the thoughtless, regular people would be like they always were and hurt the Case-53 like Casey and the slime-slug (really couldn't think of a name for this guy) with their words and actions because all Case-53s were different and most of them were "unsightly." "The Coalition wants to use people like them to blind me or something, right?" I asked. "It wasn't hard to figure out." Because Lisa did the figuring out for me. "But I think they're mistaken about exactly how that would go."

"How would that go?" Casey asked, a little nervous but also curious. She seemed like Taylor if she hadn't been bullied: ever-curious and a little fearless. After all, she just stepped out to meet me when I had three gunmen with me despite the fact that she was alone. Maybe there were other defenses and she obviously had powers, but her curiosity led her to meet me regardless.

"I would not stop myself from growing."

"... What?" Casey asked.

"My size when I was fighting Leviathan was not the largest I could be, merely what was the largest I had gone to at the time."

The two Case-53s grew a little stiff at my correction of their misconception. "And just because you mess with my sight and ability to see through my power, you aren't exactly stopping me from rolling my body around like a thrashing snake. Can you guess how that would go?"

"I can," the slime-slug responded. "So why come specifically to our community? You must already know about us if you weren't surprised by meeting Casey."

Hmm, were they watching me? I did indeed not show any surprise…

Also, why were they so open with saying their names around? Sure, they were Case-53s and thus lacked a lot of the legal rights like citizenship, but that didn't mean-.

Ah.

I came here knowing exactly how to enter through their first line of defense, which was password and camouflaged entry point. If I knew that, then I "had to" know more about them. Names were not that hard to discover compared to thinks like passwords.

They were overestimating me (and Lisa), maybe. Should I match that expectation or underplay myself?

I smirked. "The Coalition already knows-" they did for the next bit of information. "-that I can't think rationally once I grow past a certain size. The only reason why I stopped growing against Leviathan was because I couldn't see him anymore. What happens then, my neighbors, when I start fighting an ever smaller and smaller insects who refuse to give up and attack me in my home?"

Casey's snake-ball head paled. The slime-slug grew even more stiff. "You start destroying everything until nothing is left."

"Exactly like a cornered beast that lost its family would," I replied. "Because I do have family, and any attack against my Lair would mean that they would put my family at risk." I dropped my smile. "And what do you think I would do once I return to being rational to find all of New England burning to the ground?"

"... Not pretty."

"Exactly. Any and all collaborators of the Coalition would be chased down and killed. Their cities would burn. I would not stop at just America and start crossing the ocean. Hell, I might not even bother to stop growing. Where would I stop?" I shrugged. "Even I would not know."

"You're lying," Casey whispered. "All powers have limits."

I shrugged again. "I can certainly show you. I can take a dive in the ocean, grow even bigger than how big I was when I fought Leviathan." I stopped myself from further boasting. "But I'm not here for that. I simply wish to talk Mantellum out of this endeavor because he is one of two capes from Boston who is a part of the Coalition. I took on a solemn face. "And if he refuses to leave the Coalition, then I would have to consider him and those who house him to be my enemies. I'd rather not kill if I don't have to."

"B-But you killed Kaiser."

"He's a Nazi. Nazis and all other ethnic supremacists don't deserve mercy. If it strikes fear into the hearts of everyone else to leave such ideas behind, then I will kill them, their families, their friends, burn their cities, and salt the earth by bringing the literal ocean to sweep away at the remains." I immediately changed my serious stare into a smile. "But Kaiser's death seems to have scared people out of idiotic moves before I had to escalate. Isn't that grand?"

And I really would have. Shits like Nazis don't deserve to live. Their poisonous ideology had consequences further down the line.

The fact that Kasier got in my way right after I was in need of some stress relief was secondary. It was definitely secondary.

"So," I said with a teeth-showing grin. "Can I meet Mantellum?"


	15. Chapter 15

They let me through, but I didn't get to see Mantellum right away. Instead, I had a brief walk through what could be considered the "courtyard" of this community - a wide place filled with vegetable gardens and a small park to the side - and I noticed that no one was out. Even though the sun sat high in the sky, no one came to play or tend to the garden.

Was it a security precaution against me or did this community just not have a lot of people?

My ground radar showed me that there was a lot of people looking at me from windows, though their total number seemed to be around fifty at best with most of the people within my ground radar's effective radius possessing abnormal forms. This was truly a Case-53 community.

I looked up to the sky and finally noticed the wonky space distortion Lisa warned me about. Inception the movie came to my mind with how I could see the rest of Boston from here. Oh look, there was a patrol of Protectorate heroes not too far from where I entered this place. Let's hope the Dragonteeth soldiers I brought with me were not trigger happy.

The slug-slime and snakeball-head led me across the courtyard to the other side, where there was a double door entrance into one of the buildings surrounding the courtyard. These doors opened as soon as I was within arm's reach of them.

On the other side of the doors was a set of bland, concrete stairs leading up.

The two Case-53's who led me to here stopped. "Up you go," the snakeball woman said.

I hummed as I walked forward, not really having stopped when they did. I passed through the doors and walked up the stairs. After what seemed like fifty steps, I came upon a short corridor with another set of double doors at the end of it.

There were more Case-53's on the other side, and these guys looked far more intimidating than others.

Not that it mattered; no one could hurt me unless I let them.

I stopped in front of the doors and pushed them open.

**-VB-**

Interlude: Skara

Skara looked at the man who entered the room in a billowing cloak of his trenchcoat. Staring at the man, crystalline leader of the Boston's hidden Case-53 community felt anxiety. There was power to this man, a subtle difference that those in power showed but didn't seem to realize.

Her power also told her just how dangerous this man was. The more and more she stared at this man, the more and more her power responded to her demand at analysis with a mental picture of a mountain.

Considering that most non-capes were a fistful of rock at best and most capes being a small hill, a mountain of a cape, figuratively, was a dangerous and powerful man. But just how powerful was he in comparison to her and the rest of the Case-53s here?

He walked into the room where she and five other strongest members of their community sat waiting for him. Despite this show of force, he walked in without even blinking an eye at them all. He did glance and then moved on, dismissing the strongest Shakers, Movers, Blasters, and Brutes of the community.

'But then again, he's supposedly here as a representative of that dragon that sent Leviathan packing' she thought to herself. Skara remembered how terrified she felt when she saw Leviathan for the first time… and how everything everyone else but Wyrm did was pushed aside as weak and useless as the two titans fought, devastating the land with each swipe of their arms and tails. She was still surprised that Boston was relatively untouched despite their earth-shattering battle.

Wyrm's representative stopped in front of the table where six of them sat.

She smiled, extended her hand in a gesture for him to sit. "Please, let us talk."

He observed her for a moment before he sat down.

"Greetings to you all," he spoke up. "I am Wyrm's representative. My name is Dlavik." _He made that name up on the spot._

A pause.

Skara thought she heard something wrong.

"Excuse me?" she asked, nervously.

"I am Dlavik." It is a lie.

"Please don't lie," she bluntly responded. "I can tell that you are lying."

That seemed to catch the "representative" off-guard. And then, to her surprise, he rolled his eyes. "Of course, you are," he grumbled irritably.

Jeffery, her six-armed and red-skinned right hand man, was about to growl and demand some respect from the so-far disrespectful cape. Skara quickly put her hand out, telling him to stop. He looked at her in surprise, and his reaction wasn't without cause; she normally let him beat up anyone who was too disrespectful, including other Case-53s who haven't exactly gotten to learn manners yet.

Against a man who her power considered a mountain (when Jeffery was was considered a large hill), she decided that being diplomacy was crucial.

"I know that you aren't who you say you are," she replied. "In fact, you just made up that name on the spot."

The cape sighed. "I didn't expect you guys to have a Thinker," he replied as he relaxed a little in his chair. "Alright, my name is Wyrm."

For a second, she thought she heard wrong.

"What?" Jeffery asked, muttering out with a pale face.

"I'm Wyrm, and I really am here to just talk," the cape replied with an unrepentant bored face.

Skara felt her crystalline body lose color, and a corner of her mind noted that her hands - also crystalline - went from dark green to really light lime green, a sign that she was very close to panicking.

"We…" she gulped. "We heard that you were here to talk to Mantellum…?" she asked slowly.

"Yep. I originally thought about just burning your entire community to the ground. Harboring my enemy and all that."

She stiffened.

"But my second wife talked me out of it," he added, making no changes to his expression or body language to show that he had noticed her rising panic. "Made me even promise that I wouldn't attack unless _physically _attacked first. She thinks I'm a mad horndog, so I guess it kind of makes sense why she made me promise that."

'Mad horndog?' she couldn't help but repeat those words in her mind. "Well, I guess if you only want to talk to Mantellum, I guess I can let you do that…"

He smiled. "Great," he said with a small smile. "Where is he?"

"To your left."

Mantellum, bipedal ray-like Case-53, looked at her in great betrayal, and his paling face spoke volumes about what he felt about the situation.

Skara shrugged, even though she was apologizing and panicking on the inside. "He says he just wants to talk." She turned to him. "It's not anything that can't be said to us, right?"

"Nope," Wyrm - oh God, Wyrm was right in front of her - replied. He turned to Mantellum. "Are you sure about taking part in the Coalition?"

"I-." Mantellum's words failed him. Faced with the genuine article targeted by the Coalition, the ray Case-53 lost his words.

"Look, I get it. I'm threatening."

No duh!

"But have I ever gone out of my way to butcher people and capes like the Coalition makes me out to be?" he asked.

"You killed Kaiser."

"You want to feel sorry about Nazis?"

Skara thought that was a good point.

"I am a little violent. I get it. What I can do is pretty big and destructive. I get it," he said and then leaned forward towards Mantellum, who leaned back and away from the forward-leaning Coalition target. "But I have defended humanity twice while many of you in the Coalition haven't even done that."

Skara didn't know whose side she was supposed to be on, but that remark kind of burned. Mantellum seemed to think so too with the involuntary twitch.

"I...I can't help in an Endbringer fight. I'll make it worse for people. Power canceling and all that," he replied.

"Right, right. So why are you joining the Coalition, which targets me, when I am defending everyone?"

Skara wanted to know too.

"They … they said you were going to cause destruction."

"For who?" I asked. "For some villain's economy? For some heroic independent with black and white world view? For who? You?"

Mantellum curled up on himself, obviously embarrassed by the invalidation of the ideas that he thought were right.

"I… I was just scared."

"Yeah, and the first thing you did was threaten me and my family instead of calling me up and asking me to stop."

Skara winced in sympathy for Mantellum when the Case-53 man looked like he wanted to hide.

"Has anyone in the Coalition come and talk with me about myself?" he demanded.

"I r-read that some of them did…?"

"Lies. All of them are fucking lies. No one talked to me. I have hired some capes so far, but none of the Coalition members came and talked to me." He stood up. "If this is the level of 'thoroughness' that the Coalition goes through, then they obviously just want to fight me, even though any fight with me will always mean a loss for them. Is that what you want Mantellum? To be part of an offensive against someone defends humanity?" He spat on the floor. "Disgusting. If that's the level that the rest of the Coalition is on, then come. I'll at least clean this world of filth like you."

Then he left abruptly, slamming the doors open as he left.

Skara looked to Mantellum, who looked forlorn.

"I … think you should leave the Coalition, Mantellum," she said quietly.

"Me too," Mantellum replied quietly.


	16. Chapter 16

_Thank you to all of my pat-reons! _

-VB-

**Alan Marris**

After I returned from Boston's still drowning streets and the meeting with Mantellum's landlord(?), I wanted to relax and let loose a little. I couldn't fly around as a dragon, however. I knew that doing such a thing would be tantamount to taunting the Coalition, the Protectorate, and everyone else to start pointing their weapons and hands at me in fear of being my next meal.

So I did the only thing I could do to relieve myself of stress.

Sex.

I pounded vigorously into Taylor, feeling my sweat fly off of me while her ass bounced delightfully and tightly against my crotch. She squealed and panted with each thrust, pushing back against me as much as she kept up with the rhythm of our intercourse.

"A-lan-!" she moaned as she orgasmed, dipping her head into the bedsheet and screaming in ecstasy. But I didn't give her rest. I just continued to pull her on and off me in full strokes, dragging her to me and then pushing her away along with my own hips pulling myself away from her.

The entire bed shook with each motion, and Taylor mumbled out, unable to coherently communicate.

This wasn't her first orgasm of the day nor the second. It wasn't the third orgasm she had to endure while being my cock sleeve in this sex alone.

"T-Time. Tim-eee…!" she squealed off towards the end when I orgasmed, pulling her deep while pushing myself deep into her. I felt the tip of my dick push against her cervix and shuddered as I ejaculated, painting the insides of her vagina hot with my semen. After half a minute of feeling her tired and gaping pussy futilely milk my dick for more semen, I pulled out of her, brandishing my semen and juice covered dick to the cold air.

She whimpered on the bed with her face buried in the sheets, gasping like she ran a marathon. Technically speaking, she'd been in a marathon despit her pregnancy status. Sex marathon with me, that was.

I found her talking with some of the new capes about how they were going to be improving the streets of Brockton Bay when I returned. While I was a little miffed about her more or less hijacking the command of some of those capes, I let her do it.

For letting this transgression go, I made love to her ceaselessly.

I also gave her three time outs, which were five minute rest periods she could use. This was her last one.

Watching her lithe body tremble from the two hours of sex so far was a turn-on in and of itself, a and the dazed and blank face of her blissful ecstasy added to that turn-on like spice to a perfect culinary dish.

I wanted to stick my dick in her again - I didn't care which hole, I just wanted to make her melt in pleasure - and continue this, but I promised her that I would give her three breaks, so I waited for her.

Weakly pushing herself up, Taylor managed to flop onto her back, completely ignoring my first ejaculation on her back which would undoubtedly smear the bedsheets. She was too tired to care, I knew.

"D-Do I r-really hav-?" she stuttered while heaving for breath.

"Yes," I cut her off mercilessly and answered her question at the same time.

Her lips quivered a little and she pushed herself up a little. She looked at me and my sweating body and then looked at my dick.

My dick throbbed, twitching visibly.

"Ugh," she moaned out before flopping backward. Even as she did so, her hands found themselves caressing her swollen pregnant belly. Her belly was now visibly swollen.

Just acknowledging the fact that Taylor was pregnant with my baby was enough for my slightly shrinking dick to start getting hard again.

And 5 minutes were up.

Wanting to do something new this time, I grabbed one of her legs and pull it up to my shoulder while I neglected the other. Taylor whimpered in both anticipation and frustration before she mewled with pleasure when I plunged myself into her vagina.

"Who's my bitch, Taylor?" I growled as I pounded into her, heedless of her slowly declining state of mind from the new wave of pleasure taking grip of her mind. "Who's the bitch that's going to have my baby year after year?!"

"I-I-I a-am…!" Taylor moaned out while her eyes began to roll into her head.

"Who's the slut that's going to suck my dick whenever I tell her to?!" I growled louder as I penetrated deeper into her, scraping out my old ejaculates with my dick to make room for fresh ones.

"I-I am-!" she whimpered out before cutting herself off with a scream.

I freed my right hand and cupped one of her growing breasts. I pinched her nipple and pulled. At this point though, Taylor was deep in pleasure. All she did was moan out while her own hips bounced to the rhythm of my thrusts and the rest of her body bonelessly relaxed.

I groaned as I climaxed inside of her again, and then looked down at Taylor.

Ah, she fainted.

Shrugging, I pulled out of her. I watched as her gaping vagina squeezed and relaxed repeatedly while dribbling out my semen. It always turned me on just looking at her like this.

I laid her leg back down and penetrated her again.

I never said I would stop when she fell unconscious.

**-VB-**

"Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck - oh fuckfuckfuckfuckfuck-!" Lisa squealed while I took her from behind. The speed of her chant hastened when I began to pump her faster. "Fu-ack-!" she choked out when I wrapped an arm around her neck and the other around her arms and chest, trapping her on the spot, dangling from my dick and arms.

With her face locked up, her eyes stared up at me, and I took this chance to aggressively kiss her, depriving her of oxygen in the process.

She struggled even as she thrusted her own hips back to my thrusts taking her from behind like an animal.

She gagged into my mouth as my tongue ran rampant inside of her mouth, pushing down into her throat at one point only to pull back around and wrap around her own tongue.

Her eyes began to roll back into her head and I could feel her vagina tightening around me.

Then I released my arm choking her, and she climaxed on the spot. She gagged and choked even as I broke the kiss, opting to bury my face on the nape of her neck with both of my arms holding her tightly around her lower chest.

She trembled and then twitched twice as she orgasmed hard, before collapsing forward, mewling and gasping.

"Oh, are you out of it already?" I asked Lisa as I sat down on her office chair. Then I began to bounced my hip, causing her to slide up and down my shaft. She moaned as her body bounced on top of mine without her input, and completely relaxed into the motion.

"F-Fucking damnit, A-Ala-!"

She screamed as I let go of her, causing her to fall forward. She stopped herself by grabbing the edge of the desk and holding onto the edge weakly. With my hands on her waist, I grinned as I pushed the chair back a little, forcing her to stretch her arms.

When her head was off the desk and hanging off her neck and shoulders mid air, I began to pound up into her.

It wasn't long before she climaxed again, and this time, she lost her grip over the edge of the desk and fell. I used the wind to slow her fall without causing turbulence and softened the earth with my power so she wouldn't slam her hands onto the hard smoothened rock floor.

And then I was pounding into her again in that position.

She was not happy with me afterward.


	17. Chapter 165

Thank you to my pa-reons: Kejmur, Alexander S, Crazyfox, Definitely not Dio! My pat-reons also have the right to vote for which stories are updated first on my weekly schedule, and they have access to some stories and commissions that are not released immediately to the public!

-VB-

**Interlude: **  
Arrowfish

To be honest, he's been only a cape slightly longer than he's been part of the Dragonteeth.

When Boston got hit by Leviathan, the Endbringer did very little damage compared to other instances of its assault. However, anything Endbringer-related was ridiculous in proportion; the little damage that Leviathan had wrought in its latest attack had destroyed hundreds of homes, flooded Downtown areas, and broke multiple critical junctures of the highways leading in and out of the city.

The home of twenty-five year old Tyler Hakins was one of those collateral damages forgotten in the aftermath of a stunning victory against the Endbringers. He triggered when Leviathan ran from Wyrm, which involved the endbringer stomping right up to and then passing by him in its haste to leave Boston behind.

Tyler thought he was going to die. Most people would have if they saw the goddamn ENDBRINGER running towards them.

That's when he triggered.

Ironically, his power was hydrokinesis.

Yeah, talk about reminders of the worst moment of his life. Well, he got that every single fucking time he used his power.

"Arrow, it's your time for shift, bro."

Tyler looked up from the table he'd been playing poker with the boys and saw that it was Cegalia, other Dragonteeth cape who was assigned to guarding this place with him.

"Alright," he replied as he got up, folding his hands. It wasn't a good hand anyway. The Dragonteeth soldiers on break booed at him as he took his earnings and left with a grin on his face.

He left the break room and stretched a bit in the hallway before leaving the air conditioned space with a shudder…

… into the sweltering indoor facility of the Dragonteeth's third ore crushing and smelting site.

Arrowfish saw the smeltery, the forges, and the rock crushers, and sighed. Unlike most of the criminal cape organizations around the world, Wyrm's Dragonteeth differed in that their primary income source depended not on oppressing and extorting the people but from mining.

Mining!

Yes, sure, Wyrm didn't pay any sort of tax to the government, which was part of the reason why he was considered a criminal, but Wyrm and Tattletale, the former's secretary(?) had word about that. They had a whole short speech about that for the whole organization.

'_Governments exist to provide the people with public good, but the federal government of the United States of America is currently incapable of insuring the commonwealth of the societies it governs, including the safety of the public from internal and external threats. This alone should invalidate its legitimacy, yet what goes further is the fact that our America is corrupt, led by individuals who care not for its safety, prosperity, and society. They ignore the threats that shake the foundation of society because it was much more convenient to let those threats be. _

'_Why else would the gangs roam the nation so freely? Why else would the criminal syndicates that make a living extorting the people get away with barely a hundredth of their numbers struck down?_

'_Endbringer truce is a farce, but most of you don't know it. It is completely understandable. There are more villains who do away with the truce when it suits them. There are heroes who do away with the truce when it suits them. The government cares not for these and punishes none. During the Endbringer battles itself, who shows up? It is not villains but heroes who show up in mass. However, the ones who make up the majority of these heroes are the government funded Protectorate, which is the largest cape organization in the world, but the independent hero and their teams! What do these Protectorate heroes do inbetween the Endbringer attacks? They watch their cities burn. They do nothing to curb the criminals killing and extorting their people because they have been told that supporting the facade of stability is their job, not catching criminal parahumans. _

'_I have no reason to give my money to a corrupt government. I have no reason to support an ineffective government. I have no reason to support federal super soldiers who do not even perform _their jobs_.'_

It was, as Tyler's grandma would say, a fancy way of saying fuck you to the government. Wyrm also made sure to remind the soldiers and the capes of the Dragonteeth that any sort of disruptive behavior would not be taken lightly. Tyler thought that it was a bit hypocritical of Wyrm, considering that he killed a lot of people and there were rumors of him forcing himself on both of his girls, but Wyrm was also his boss so Tyler zipped his mouth and said nothing.

"Aw, it's your turn, Stickfish?"

Arrowfish grunted and turned to glare at the owner of the annoying voice calling him out.

He looked at Henry, the manager of this facility, who stood not too far from him with a safety helmet and fire-resistant suit. The sharp and square jawed, six foot three inches tall, muscular, multi-scarred, and bald man grinned while looking down at him.

Arrowfish, with his five foot eight inches, scrawny arms, and clunky blue costume-armor, looked like a kid next to him, even though he was twenty-five years old and Henry was twenty-three years old.

Henry also called him 'Stickfish' because he was a stickler for Dragonteeth rules. Was it his goddamn fault that he didn't want to be eaten or blasted by Wyrm? No… but apparently, his adherence to rules made him a man with a stick up his ass.

"Yes, Henry. I'm just gonna get to it. Please don't bother me," he replied as he walked pass the manager.

The manager just laughed before going back to the processing floor. Arrowfish walked out of the facility, sighing in relief as the oppressive heat gave away to the cool, breezy summer night.

_Vroomm….._

'Hmm?' Arrowfish looked around. That sounded like a car, but it was 3 a.m., who would be around here? Precaution was the better part of valor, so he unclipped his radio and held it up to his lips. "We may have a possible intruder on an automobile, please be alert," he reported in.

"Copy that, Arrowfish," Manager Henry replied.

Vrooommm….

It was getting louder.

"The sound of the automobile is getting closer…" he added as he stepped further outside. While still on the premise of the facility, he looked around. He didn't see anything beyond the marked lands and the flat structure-less plain between this smelting site and the closest buildings of the city.

Vrooommm….!

It was … very close-

VRROOM-!

Arrowfish's last thoughts before he died, crushed under an invisible truck, was how obnoxious the sound was.

**-VB-**

Brockton Herald

Breaking News!

The Archer's Bridge Merchants raid one of Wyrm's smeltry!


	18. Chapter 18

When I heard that one of my smelteries was hit, I asked myself what I would do to the idiots that thought they could touch me.

When I learned that it was the dipshit Merchants that did it, I blamed myself for not cleaning up trash.

When I got all of the facts together, I made a decision after three hours of intense discussion and thinking.

I gathered the Dragonteeth together, all those in the city and not essential to any of the security operations. When they were together, I told them what we were to do.

"We end the Merchants within the next three days," I announced without preamble. "The local authorities can't be half-assed and trusted to do anything, so we're going to have to do it ourselves. Ready yourself by tomorrow." I slowly stood up and then deliberately stopped myself halfway through. "Oh, and anyone who gets me the heads of their capes will earn bounty rewards, if not promotions." Then I finished standing and left the auditorium.

No sooner that I left the auditorium, Taylor joined me by my side, walking along but her mind elsewhere and upset. She's taken the death of Arrowfish personally as he was one of the first of my cape recruits who took to her side first.

"When?"

"Tomorrow. I'm sure you want to spend that time looking for the Merchants?"

"... Okay."

With that, she split herself from me, going towards the surface. One of the guards - who was standing at attention and ready with an SMG held in his hands - in the corridor saw her leave, looked at me subtly, and I nodded.

Taylor was sure to want to jump around on her own, but I wasn't going to let her be so … unsafe. A driver would be necessary for her mission.

The guard held up his wrist, activated his wrist-radio, and spoke soft words through it. An equally soft confirmation came from the other side, and he nodded to me as he dropped his hand back to his side.

I watched Taylor leave, knowing that the brutal warlord that she could have become could come out starting now. After all, it was the supposed deaths of the Undersiders that led Skitter into killing Alexandria, the supposed killer.

I'll have to distract her once this debacle with the Merchants was over. I couldn't have her wallow in negative emotions for long.

…

But I also knew that I would have less and less time once the Merchants were eliminated. Many outsiders would see my removal of the Merchants as the realization of their fears: my march of conquest. Their Coalition would fire, even if the Merchants were never one of them. It was consideration of the Coalition that led me to think for so long instead of lashing out immediately.

I gave myself and the Dragonteeth three days (two days in earnest because we would prepare today) because anymore time and the Coalition would come bearing down on me.

On the other hand, I doubted that the Coalition was networked or administered efficiently enough to assemble a force within two days, and even after two days, they would trickle in rather than come down as one force. The Elite, in particular, made up the biggest portion of the Coalition yet everything I've learned about them told me that they would not come down on me until some other organization struck first and bore the brunt of my wrath.

It didn't mean I was going to give myself the leisure of slowing my response to the Merchants' raid on my facility and the deaths of my people.

No, no, no.

I told myself that this was personal.

I would treat it like it was.

I wasn't going to hesitate because some asshole was looking over my shoulder or that Cauldron could come to mess with me.

I bared my fangs at the thought of killing Skidmark and Squealer.

It was going to be … cathartic.

**-VB-**

(With Lisa)

Lisa frowned when she heard Alan's announcement and when he walked off stage, she began to wonder if staying here was really in her best interest…

[His announcement will proliferate to the greater world within two days. His action will alert the world before he strikes at the Merchants. There are many spies from the Coalition already in the city.]

Yeah, that was not good.

She heard steps behind her.

[The build and the sound of the steps are very specific to Alan. Alan is coming towards you.]

She looked over her shoulder. He walked towards her but he wasn't focused on her.

[Usually only frowns when something annoys him. Coming to see you to talk about annoyance. The Merchants made him angry but they aren't annoying to him. Only subject that "annoys" him is the Coalition. Coming to talk to you about the Coalition.]

"Lisa," he greeted her even as he looked distracted.

"Let's talk in my office," she told him.

He grunted out an agreement and followed her.

As they walked through the corridor, they made for a stark contrast.

[Followers see Alan as an unbreakable pillar of strength. You are seen as an annoying sidekick when your status as Alan's woman is not brought up.]

Gee, thanks.

When they entered her office, he shut the door behind her and sat down on one of the chairs.

Since Alan's excursion to Boston Endbringer battle, Lisa upgraded her office to be more liveable. There was a golden eagle statuette in one corner, comfy armchairs, expanded the office, got herself a desktop computer with optic fiber internet connection…

Yes, she's been "blinging" her office.

"How many eyes are on us in the city?" he asked her when she sat down.

She hummed. "Probably fifteen, eighteen if you add the local PRT."

"The Coalition?"

"Sixteen."

"Coalition spies in the PRT?"

"No, Coalition sympathizers."

His face darkened.

"Are there any chance that the local PRT or Protectorate will start a fight?"

"Kind of."

"Lisa, I need straightforward answers."

She huffed. "It's not like you're going to go into Boardwalk, right? Then no."

He hummed. "... Anything else?"

"I might have something."

A pause.

"Well?"

"There's another player in the city. I haven't seen much movement from them and they looked like they were going to pass by, but they're staying with this new development."

"... Who?"

"Gesellshaft."

Alan's eyes narrowed. Lisa knew that Alan had dim view of racists, especially _dumb _racism. "Main branch?"

"Oh no. Just your local dumb dumb blondes…" she stopped and blushed at her own mistake.

Alan smirked. "You're a blonde."

[He likes it when you blush and make mistakes.]

"Shut up," she snipped at him though without much heat. "Anyways, they're just another proxy. They are in one mind with the Coalition but they're the Elite's rival more or less for influence in the East Coast, so they're supplying new capes amenable to their cause."

"And yet you didn't tell me sooner?"

"They were small fries! Like really small."

"The Merchants are small fries."

"That's because you let them be."

He stared at her for a moment before he smirked.

[Wants sex.]

Fuck.

"I think I'm going to need to punish you for leaving something so… important out from our last meeting."

He stood up and walked around her table and leaned down towards her, an arm on each of the arms of her chair.

Not too long after that, her skirt was hitched, her legs over her shoulders, and her vagina was being rammed into by Alan.

Why the hell wasn't she looking for a way out?

Oh yeah, she's pregnant and she loved the sex.


End file.
